Such a paradox is understandable, given the pace and depth of current economic and social change. It also underlines the urgency of responding to those public anxieties. The OECD study is a contribution to that response. There are two key messages in the book. First, there is a pressing need to communicate what trade and investment can and cannot do and what liberalisation is and is not responsible for.
Liberalisation brings clear net benefits for our societies.
The book endeavours to identify and explain them, in as objective a way as possible. It is vital that those essential benefits are well understood. At the same time, liberalisation is not the most important cause of transformation in our economies. Many other factors are in play, most notably technology-driven structural change. Nor is liberalisation an end in itself.