This book takes a fresh look at issue in economic policy. The author provides a critical history of international trade and an alternative analysis to orthodox doctrines about trade policy. He argues that trade, although a natural economic process, has today become much more complex, deregulated and divorced from development than is desirable. The book explains and critiques the crucial concept of free trade. A policy of free trade is central to today’s world-dominating globalization project. The more euphoric globalists uncritically assume that it has universal and unequivocal benefits for all people and countries. The author shows that leading economists have always been more sceptical about free trade doctrine than the dogmatic globalizers realize. He argues that the World Bank’s long-term push for export-led development is misguided. He concludes by suggesting elements of a new approach to development and an alternative world trading and economic order.