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Free Trade: A Governmentality Approach

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  • Marion Traub-Werner

    (Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, 414 Social Sciences Building, 267 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA)

Abstract

The content of global free-trade rules and the number of nations beholden to them have expanded dramatically since the Uruguay round of multilateral negotiations; much of it through agreements to form preferential trade areas (PTAs). Drawing on Foucauldian governmentality studies, this paper explores how the spaces of ‘free trade’ are produced through neoliberal spatial and political imaginaries and material practices to construct ‘barriers to trade’ as objects of trade rules. These concepts are explored through a case study of rules of origin in PTAs, increasingly long technical footnotes to trade agreements that aim to sort hybrid flows of commodities and services into single nation-state categories. I argue that projects to create spaces of unimpeded trade reconfigure obstacles and barriers in new and sometimes unexpected ways.

Suggested Citation

  • Marion Traub-Werner, 2007. "Free Trade: A Governmentality Approach," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(6), pages 1441-1456, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:39:y:2007:i:6:p:1441-1456
    DOI: 10.1068/a38228
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Paul Brenton & Miriam Manchin, 2014. "Making EU Trade Agreements Work: The Role of Rules of Origin," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: INTERNATIONAL TRADE, DISTRIBUTION AND DEVELOPMENT Empirical Studies of Trade Policies, chapter 14, pages 299-313, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. World Bank, 2005. "Global Economic Prospects 2005 : Trade, Regionalism and Development," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14783.
    3. P. J. Lloyd, 1993. "A Tariff Substitute for Rules of Origin in Free Trade Areas," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(6), pages 699-712, November.
    4. Hoekman, Bernard, 1993. "Rules of Origin for Goods and Services: Conceptual Issues and Economic Considerations," CEPR Discussion Papers 821, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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