Jagdish Bhagwati

Jagdish Bhagwati (1934-) is a prominent economist noted for his defence of free trade against the critics of globalisation. He is Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics, and professor of political science at Columbia University.

He is married to Padma Desai.

According to a biographical note, Bhagwati was:

• external adviser to the Director General of the WTO (2001);
• special policy adviser to the UN on globalization (2000);
• economic policy adviser to the Director-General of the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT), (1991-93);
• Ford International Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), (1968-80). [1]

In 2000, he was signatory to American Enterprise Institute (AEI)-coordinated amicus briefing with Supreme Court to contend that the Environmental Protection Agency should, contrary to a prior ruling, be allowed to take into account the costs of regulations when setting environmental standards.

Bhagwati has received several honorary degrees and awards, including:

• the Bernhard Harms Prize,
• the Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy,
• the Freedom Prize, which he shared with Sir Leon Brittan

In May 2004, he was one of the experts at the Copenhagen Consensus.

Anti-anti-Sweatshops

In July 2000, Bhagwati together with some other "free trader" economists (Alan Deardorff, Robert Stern, T.N. Srinivasan, Robert E. Baldwin, and Arvind Panagariya) set up Academic Consortium on International Trade or ACIT, to counter criticism of "sweatshops" on US campuses. The group doesn't present itself as "pro-sweatshop", but rather as "free trade" and "anti-anti-sweatshop". Remarkable aspect of most of these economists is that they haven't read the key books and articles by globalization critics like Naomi Klein. They also narrow the terms of the debate as positing it as one between "free trade" vs. "anti-free-trade", while these are not the issues raised by the sweatshop critics. ACIT is a clear "free trade" lobby group, and they have not been constituted to have a dialog or debate with the critics of sweatshops or globalization.

Affiliations

• Centre for Civil Society – board of scholars
• Human Rights Watch (Asia) – Academic Advisory Board
• Council on Economic Priorities Accreditation Agency – Advisory Board
• CUTS (Consumer Unity and Trust Society), Centre for International Trade and Economics – International Advisory Board
• Atlas Economic Research Foundation's International Freedom Project –Board of Avisors
• Council on Foreign Relations – Senior Fellow
• Academic Consortium on International Trade (ACIT) – Steering Committee.
• National Foundation for American Policy – Advisory Board
• National Bureau of Economic Research, Director
• International Freedom Center, Scholar/Advisor
• Advisory Board, European Management Institute

Books

• Jagdish Bhagwati, In Defense of Globalization, Oxford University Press, www.oup-usa.org, ISBN 0-19-5170253. "With wit and wisdom, Jagdish Bhagwati convincingly shows that globalization is part of the solution, not part of the problem," the promotional material states.

References

• Homepage of Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University website, accessed March 2004.
• Abstract of Amici Curiae briefing to Supreme Court, Brookings Institution website, accessed March 2004.
• Council on Foreign Relations, Jagdish N. Bhagwati Andre Meyer Senior Fellow in International Economics, undated, accessed April 2004.