"In their provocative book, Fair Trade for All, Joseph E. Stiglitz [...] and Andrew Charlton [...] argue that the poorer nations are right. A better deal would be for them to move toward free trade gradually, each according to its own particular circumstances. The authors urge richer nations to help poorer ones prepare themselves for trade, while dismantling their own trade barriers, which prevent developing nations from selling them many goods and services. [...] Stiglitz and Charlton show that standard economic assumptions are wrong when it comes to many developing economies. When markets in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere are opened, people often can't move easily to new industries where the nation has a comparative advantage. [...] Hence, the authors argue, the pace at which poorer nations open their markets to trade should coincide with the development of new institutions - roads, schools, banks and the like - that make such transitions easier and generate real opportunities. Since many poor nations can't afford the investments required to build these institutions, rich nations have a responsibility to help. Without these other institutions in place, the authors say, trade by itself can do more harm than good. [...] they fail to acknowledge that within richer nations free trade is already disproportionately benefiting the best educated and best connected. Thewealthy are growing much wealthier while the middle class is being squeezed. In fact, the adjustment mechanisms the authors find lacking in most developing economies - good public schools, modern infrastructure and adequate social safety nets - are coming to be less and less available even in America."

"the dryness of language and the painstaking, evidence-based presentation favoured by Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton should not be allowed to obscure the power of the points they make. They set out to produce a kind of Beveridge Report for the 21st-century economy, and to knock away some of the shibboleths underpinning the free trade ideology which still dominates global economic thinking. And they largely succeed. [...] In all, they provide a workable and reasonable, if somewhat ponderous, way to make the current system fairer. What they don't do is live up to the claim that they have come up with 'a radical new economic model'. Stiglitz has for some time been seen as something of a Great White Hope by those campaigning to change the global economic model. He is actually a cautious, fair-minded neo-Keynesian, with some sensible ideas. Future historians may conclude that a society in which the ultra-reasonable Joseph Stiglitz was seen as a radical was far more in thrall to the gods of the market than it could bring itself to admit."

"Their stated purpose is 'to describe how trade policies can be designed in developed and developing countries with a view to integrating developing countries into the world trading system and to help them benefit from their participation' (1). Further, they ask, 'What would an agreement based on principles of economic analysis and social justice - not on economic power and special interests - look like?' (5). Stiglitz and Charlton are quite critical of the current world trade regime, but the book differs from most others of that genre in that the criticisms are informed, and repeated references are made to both theoretical and empirical work that supports the criticisms. Even so, the book is unbalanced in that it focuses so much on possible ways in which less-developed countries may be disadvantaged in the current trading system that it does not give a full accounting of the many benefits realized by countries that have successfully integrated into the world economy. [...] Voices such as those of Stiglitz and Charlton, who raise the flag of social justice concerning trade matters and at the same time provide sophisticated discussion of theeconomic issues involved, are rarely heard. Despite its one-sidedness, the book contains much food for thought and is recommended reading for those with a serious interest in trade policy."