From neutral trade policy devices employed to identity country of origin of commodities, the rules of origin are emerging as protectionist tools. Nation-states, as they are increasingly denied of conventional trade policy tools, are reasserting themselves by evolving new and less visible weapons...

The political ideologies and economic strategies promoted since the early 1980s have created the ingrained welfare conditions that current reforms are meant to address. Behind the reforms is an ideology that not only seeks to reduce the role of the state but also implicitly blames the poor for...