This text offers an insight into the political challenges to free trade and US trade policy and explores the fragile ecosystem of multinational trade alliances in the face of insurgent political protests from both the left and the right.

As a participant in and negotiator of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, Thomas A. Hockin provides a unique insider's look at the political challenges to free trade and U. S. trade policy.

The ideological resistance to the WTO and the strangely inarticulate defenders of the WTO
three ways to look at the politics of trade policy
beyond ideological challenges to the WTO
how WTO disputes get settled and the U.S. scorecard
the WTO in practice systematically offending national sovereignty
Chinese torture? a scrutiny into the inscrutable
dispute settlement "Chinese style"
the future of the "free trade for the Americas" and the dispute settlement rules
panels matter, politics matter - case histories under the FTA and NAFTA
the environmental and labor side accords to NAFTA.