Analyzing the impact of trade on regional development and employment, this volume presents a set of industry case studies in which the international locational choices of industries are linked to metropolitan and regional growth patterns. They attempt to show how the United States has been served by domestic firms whose national and international locational patterns are shifting, the result of strategic planning as well as intervention by government agencies.

Together, these studies pose a considerable challenge to the free trade prescription, suggesting that success in trade is fundamentally shaped by governmental intervention. They also show the adverse effects and adjustment costs that entire regions can suffer, economic and social costs which must be weighed against purported gains from free trade. Each set of authors offers an alternative political and economic course for the United States and other nations to follow, tailored to the specifics of the industry under consideration.