Industrial Policy, National Security, and the Perilous Plight of the WTO,

Authored by Petros C Mavroidis

(OUP, 2025), ISBN 9780197795101

Reviewed by Filippo Fontanelli

 

Is it possible to say anything non-transient about the rules of the global trade regime today? Since this book came out, Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ reciprocal tariffs came and went1; trade partners scrambled to mitigate them through hurried agreements2; Section 122 tariffs were imposed and are now being challenged3; and, on the horizon, loom indiscriminate Section 301 tariffs justified by reference to overcapacity.

 

One can, of course, still say something salient and durable, provided it is grounded in the depth of research and insight that characterises this book. The volume takes one strand of the current trade wars – the struggle for dominance in advanced semiconductor manufacturing – and follows it to illuminate the troubles, shortcomings, and uncertainty, in other words the ‘perilous plight’, confronting the World Trade Organization (WTO).

 

This is a book that does three things, and does them exceedingly well. It engages with the pressing issues of the day (subsidies, industrial policy, the invocation and scope of national security, trade wars, and the role of the WTO). It constructs an account that is historically informed and economically literate. And it tells us much about what to expect, while also advancing a recipe for reform.