that it was importing half of the wool required for military uniforms, so it declared wool and mohair to be

“strategic materials” and began to give subsidies to wool and mohair farmers. Although the government

removed wool from the official list of “strategic” materials in 1960, the subsidies for mohair continued for

almost 40 years until the government repealed them in 1993, and then reinstated them in 2002. All too often,

the national interest argument has become an excuse for handing out the indirect subsidy of protectionism to

certain industries or companies. After all, politicians, not nonpartisan analysts make decisions about what

constitutes a key strategic material.

20.4 How Governments Enact Trade Policy: Globally, Regionally, and Nationally

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain the origin and role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and General Agreement on Tariffs and

Trade (GATT)
{"source_file": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "batch_upload": true, "moddate": "2022-12-07T14:23:05-06:00", "file_hash": "830b81f41611ac67a490444dbb5d6aed292224606965b06965b914443c93331a", "file_type": ".pdf", "source": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "producer": "Prince 14.2 (www.princexml.com)", "file_name": "Microeconomics3e.pdf", "upload_timestamp": "2026-02-07T15:37:44.339247", "creationdate": "2022-12-07T14:15:44-06:00", "total_pages": 597, "title": "Principles of Microeconomics 3e", "file_size_mb": 26.99, "uploaded_via": "batch_uploader", "creator": "PDFMiner"}