United States Trade Policy at the Crossroads

First considers actual and potential new directions for US trade policy, regarding the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement and the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act, both of 1988, as particularly significant. The article then discusses general factors prompting policy shifts, arguments used to justify unilateral reductions of trade barriers, the appropriateness of methods used to extract concessions, and provides a conclusion on the questions of managed trade and regionalism.