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Is it really true that international trade is vital for eliminating world poverty and achieving a sustainable future? Or is economic globalisation the villain of the piece? Clive George's provocative book examines the evidence, exposes the myths, and presents challenging new proposals for comprehensive reform of the global trading system. Based on ten years of in-depth research into the impacts of the trade agreements that are forged in the World Trade Organisation and through regional negotiations it reveals that few of the claims made by the major players stand up to scrutiny, while many of the counter-claims lack rigour in their analysis of key issues. It cuts through the rhetoric with illuminating anecdotes from the author's experience of working with trade negotiators, to present a more realistic view of their motives and the outcomes they achieve. Each of the components of the trade liberalisation agenda is examined in turn, to identify its most likely impacts on the interacting economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. In some cases the rhetoric approximates to the truth while in many others it does not. From its analysis of the relationships between trade, social transformation, economic growth and environmental sustainability, the book concludes with proposals for how the rules by which trade is governed might be reformed to help tackle the world's most pressing problems instead of making them worse.