Bhagwati: Advocate of free trade

chandigarh: a lecture on `globalisation and appropriate governance' was delivered by prof jagdish n bhagwati, arthur lehman, professor of economics and political science, columbia university, new york at the department of economics panjab university. dean university instructions ashok sahni, presided over the lecture. keeping in with his image of an advocate of free trade, prof bhagwati dispelled all anti-liberalisation rhetoric as ``fear- fed'' and of limited validity.he argued that free trade is far superior to restrictive trade and hence his advocacy of liberalisation. however, he said he was against shock therapy in this context. as a gradualist, he was all for putting in place suitable institutional mechanism and adjustment assistance before going whole-hog into globalisation. prof bhagwati stressed that authentic research studies form the basis of criticism of trade liberalisation rather than sheer articles of faith or ideological baggage. trade liberalisation was not the reason of poverty, he stressed, with reference to india. prof bhagwati advocated that social and moral agenda should not be pursued through trade barriers. getting different clauses inserted in the world trade organisation, to serve such purposes would amount to creating competitive trade barriers, thereby undermining the globalisation process, he opined. specifically referring to the us insistence on social clause in trade rules, he pointed out that the us track record on freedom to associate was perhaps the worst and formed the soft underbelly for future negotiations.