New Trade Strategy For the World Economy, Edited by Harry G. Johnson, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1969.

Harry G. Johnson edited the book under review when tradepolicy after the Kennedy Round was in a state of flux. In the UnitedStates there was a resurgence of protectionism. Britain suffered anotherEEC rebuff in the same period, with Western Europe remaining at Sixesand Sevens. The imbalance of European Currencies and the inadequacy ofinternational reserves were a threat to international trade. GeneralisedTariff Preferences for developing countries were agreed in principle,but agreement in practice was not in sight. President Kennedy's GrandDesign needed a revision. A New Trade Strategy was required. The presentcollection of papers seems to have been designed to provide this newstrategy. In broad terms, what is proposed is the establishment of afree trade regime in industrial products amongst a group of countriestouching the Atlantic, together with some subsidiary proposals foraction in related areas of trade policy. The nucleus of what would thusinitially be a North Atlantic Free Trade Area (NAFTA) would be theUnited States, Canada and Britain and other members of the European FreeTrade Associa¬tion (EFTA). But the plan would be an "open-ended"arrangement which other industrialised nations — Japan, Australia, NewZealand and the countries - of the European Economic Community—couldalso join, provided they were prepared to conform to the rules that thisintegration scheme would entail. The launching of a multilateral freetrade association could be the means of continuing the momentum towardsworld trade liberalisation and of countering the inward-lookingtendencies of the EEC.