The last decades were characterized by large increases in world trade, not only in absolute terms, but also in relation to world GDP. This was in large parts caused by increasing exchanges of parts and components between countries as a consequence of international fragmentation of production....

The 1970s marked the end of the years in which the United States was the guarantor of a free world trade order, while Western Europe made efforts to catch up with the economic superpower. In this book, Giuseppe La Barca explains how the trade environment and trade policies in the United States...