Three Simple Principals of Trade Policy

This is a sharp, accessible primer on the fundamentals of trade policy from acclaimed economist Douglas Irwin, who cuts through today's fiercest trade debates by showing why import taxes quietly act as export taxes and why trade deficits are really a story of international capital flows, giving readers, policymakers, and investors a clear framework for understanding tariffs, US commercial policy, and the global economy.

The author argues that a tax on imports commensurately creates a tax on exports, and that trade imbalances reflect capital flows between countries.

Douglas A. Irwin is Robert E. Maxwell Professor of Arts and Sciences in the Economics Department at Dartmouth College. He is author of Free Trade under Fire (2002) and Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade (1996).