|
Books > Business & Economics > Economics > International economics > International trade > Trade agreements & tariffs
North American Society for Oceanic History John Lyman Book Award in
United States Maritime History Passamaquoddy Bay lies between Maine
and New Brunswick at the mouth of the St. Croix River. Most of it
(including Campobello Island) is within Canada, but the Maine town
of Lubec lies at the bay's entrance. Rich in beaver pelts, fish,
and timber, the area was a famous smuggling center after the
American Revolution. Joshua Smith examines the reasons for
smuggling in this area and how three conflicts in early republic
history the 1809 Flour War, the War of 1812, and the 1820 Plaster
War reveal smuggling's relationship to crime, borderlands, and the
transition from mercantilism to capitalism. Smith astutely
interprets smuggling as created and provoked by government efforts
to maintain and regulate borders. In 1793 British and American
negotiators framed a vague new boundary meant to demarcate the
lingering British empire in North America (Canada) from the new
American Republic. Officials insisted that an abstract line now
divided local peoples on either side of Passamaquoddy Bay. Merely
by persisting in trade across the newly demarcated national
boundary, people violated the new laws. As smugglers, they defied
both the British and American efforts to restrict and regulate
commerce. Consequently, local resistance and national authorities
engaged in a continuous battle for four decades. Smith treats the
Passamaquoddy Bay smuggling as more than a local episode of
antiquarian interest. Indeed, he crafts a local case study to
illuminate a widespread phenomenon in early modern Europe and the
Americas. A volume in the series New Perspectives on Maritime
History and Nautical Archaeology, edited by James C. Bradford and
Gene Allen Smith
In the Bretton Woods era, trade liberalization, the improvement of
labour rights and working conditions, and the strengthening of
environmental policies, were seen as mutually supportive. But is
this always true? Can we continue to pretend to protect the rights
of workers and to improve environmental protection, particularly
through climate change mitigation strategies, within an agenda
focused on trade liberalization? Is it credible to pursue trade
policies that aim to expand the volumes of trade, without linking
such policies to labour and environmental standards, seen as
'non-trade' concerns? This book asks these questions, offering a
detailed analysis of whether linkage is desirable and legally
acceptable under the disciplines of the World Trade Organization
(WTO). It concludes that trade can work for sustainable
development, but only if we see it as a means for social and
environmental progress, including climate change mitigation, and if
we avoid fetichizing it as an end to be pursued for its own sake.
|
|