Three pieces worth reading in full:

• Simon Lester, refuting Daniel Altman, explains some of the problems with preferential trade deals and why the WTO won’t be made obsolete by the proliferation of PTAs.
• Mike Konczal summarizes a new paper (pdf) by David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson that analyzes effect of import competition on U.S. local labor markets that were differentially exposed to the rise of China trade between 1990 through 2007 due to differences in their initial patterns of industry specialization.
• David Warsh discusses Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression, Doug Irwin’s new book, in the context of explaining Smoot-Hawley’s role in the Great Depression.