World trade has emerged as a critical issue among Americans concerned about how opening up new markets affects people's lives here and abroad. The debate spilled onto the streets of Seattle and Washington in demon-strations that rivaled the antiwar protests of the 1960s. It re-emerged before the recent House vote to normalize trade with China. Critics charge that globalization only benefits corporations that relocate factories in countries with cheap labor and weak environmental laws, worsening working conditions abroad, polluting the environment and threatening American jobs. But proponents say that free trade is the key to improving living and working conditions in developing countries, creating high-paying jobs in the U.S. and protecting the global environment.

Mary H. Cooper specializes in environmental, energy and defense issues. Before joining CQ Researcher as a staff writer in 1983, she was a reporter and Washington correspondent for the Rome daily newspaper l'Unita. She is the author of The Business of Drugs (CQ Press, 1990). She also is a contract translator-interpreter for the U.S. State Department. Cooper graduated from Hollins College in English.