Skip to main content



Article Summary

Gerbasi, Jennifer and M.E. Warner, June 2003. The Impact of International Trade on State and Local Government Authority, Dept. of City and Regional Planning Working Papers #204.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. Available here.

The WTO, NAFTA, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the upcoming Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) have been formulated to limit government participation in a number of ways in the name of free market competition. Government measures such as subsidies, taxes, health and environmental regulations, administrative rules, and government provision of goods and services are viewed as potentially interfering with the free market disciplines of competition based on price and quality.