Consumer Protection and Trade Governance: A Critical Partnership?

The argument often goes that trade liberalization, amongst other things, leads to lower prices, better quality products, and increased choice for consumers. Yet, in recent years, consumer organizations have renewed demands for the prioritization of consumers in international trade governance frameworks. This article considers these demands and argues that they mask two important points. First, they highlight a normative quest to redefine the aims of trade liberalization. Second, they expose a possible dissatisfaction with the current international consumer protection regime. Against this background, the article concludes that these two underlying points should inform any policy and academic engagements with the demands highlighted.