Intégration commerciale « socialement responsable » : une approche en termes d'économie politique

Most economists believe that the liberalization of international trade produces significant gains. Public opinion is much less optimistic, concerned that the current division of the gains from trade is unfair, unevenly distributed both across and within countries. To understand the position of globalization sceptics and respond to their complaints, economists and policymakers need to move beyond the fact that trade produces static and dynamic gains. They need to pay more attention to the ?pains from trade?, the distributive dimensions of trade integration, and the interactions between trade openness and domestic redistributive policies. After briefly reviewing what is known about the distributive impacts of trade openness, this paper examines the political economy feedbacks of trade integration on domestic redistribution and identifies the economic and political feasibility constraints of a ?trade regime with redistribution.? Taking a normative perspective, it explores the conditions for the existence of a ?socially responsible? open trade regime and discusses some of the policy tradeoffs associated with implementing such a regime.