This lecture will examine the importance of free trade and globalization. It will begin by looking at attacks on free trade from politicians and religious leaders and, in particular, the protectionist threats that are developing in many countries. It will then examine the conditions in which free trade benefits countries and explain why protectionist interests are still so prominent in politics. The course will present an analysis of the implications of free trade for prosperity in less developed and more developed countries and will show what has happened to poverty and inequality as trade freer trade has been adopted since the early 1980s. The lecture will finish by returning to the threats to globalization and free trade that emanate from a number of sources and ask whether we are right to question the trend towards freer trade.

Philip Booth, Ph.D.
Professor of Finance, Public Policy, and Ethics and Director of Catholic Mission
St. Mary’s University, Twickenham