The Aztecs did it.

So did the Japanese.

And even the indolent noblemen of Europe's
Golden Age did it.

Since the first cavemen crawled out of their burrows to exchange firewood for leopard skins, human beings have been trading goods and services in the world marketplace with great success.

There is much benefit to come from free trade.

Where would we be without Belgian chocolates?

Rwandan coffee beans?

Or the Italian Lamborghini?

Trade is about far more than producing wealth, however. To paraphrase the great economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, the purpose of free trade is to grant us freedom. Freedom from what? From scarcity, from want, from the tedium of our own limited potential.

But trade has a dark side.

We confront that dark side when our employer moves its textile factory to Mexico to benefit from the North American Free Trade Agreement, or when the latest World Trade Organization negotiations make it more profitable to outsource customer service jobs to India than to set up a call center in the United States.

For some, free trade is nothing short of slavery in sheep's clothing. The Soviets once called it "a device of the devil to ensnare and enslave small countries."

Others would have you believe trade is always beneficial. Even as factories are closing, the costs of basic foodstuffs are on the rise, the U.S. trade deficit is climbing to epic heights, and the environment is choking on our growth-at-any-cost refuse, they continue with that tired old mantra: "Trade is good. Trade works."

I have been an international trade practitioner and scholar for twelve years now, but I belong to neither camp. Whether at my work in the White House Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, during my travels throughout Africa, or in my current job as a law professor, I have confronted both the good and bad of free trade.

But in the public debate, there is little balance or opportunity to develop a true understanding of the burning issues:

• What is free trade?


• How did it develop and where is it going?


• How does it affect our lives?

After years of lamenting, I finally decided to follow Gandhi's advice "to be the change you want to see in the world."

This website is my effort to bring to you the many voices of trade. Through a series of conversations, you will hear from experts on the leading edge of trade policy, and from practitioners who make things happen on the ground. I promise to provoke, entertain and enlighten.

So pull up a chair, get a glass of wine and let's get started!