Do the benefits of free trade outweigh its costs?

That question will be addressed in the annual Cornell Political Forum Fall Debate between Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and former presidential candidate, and Jagdish Bhagwati, the renowned international economist and the Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and Professor of political science at Columbia University, Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 8 p.m. in the Alice Statler Auditorium on the Cornell University campus.

The debate is free and open to the public. Tickets are required for admission and are available at the Willard Straight Hall ticket office and at the door.

Sam Pollack, events president of the Cornell Political Forum, an undergraduate student organization, will introduce the debaters.

"Nader and Bhagwati, both nationally known for their outspoken opinions on free trade, were chosen for their ability to communicate their views and for their excellent reputations. The Cornell Political Forum is looking forward to our best fall debate ever," said Matt Wexler, president and editor in chief of the Cornell Political Forum.

Nader, one of this nation's most prolific critics of trade liberalization, has argued that the world is entering a generation of global power of multinational corporations. The challenge now, he asserts, is whether these giant corporations are going to be able to respect instead of erode and control democratic processes. Although he is widely known as a consumer advocate and has formed numerous citizen groups, including Public Citizen and the Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), Nader's interests are much broader and reflect a concern with representative democracy. He believes that the greatest threat to democracy is in runaway corporate power, and his 1996 presidential campaign focused on this corporate juggernaut.

Regarded as one of the foremost international trade theorists of his generation, Bhagwati has published more than 200 articles and 40 books and has served as economic policy adviser to the director-general of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) from 1991-1993. His

writings on public policy have just been published by MIT Press (1998): A Stream of Windows: Unsettling Reflections on Trade, Immigration, and Democracy. Among his other books is Protectionism (1988), an international best seller. He appears frequently on national television programs, including CNN and the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Bhagwati founded in 1971 the Journal of International Economics, the premier journal in the field today, and Economics and Politics in 1989. He currently is president of the Eastern Economic Association.

The format of the event will allow each debater 10 minutes for an opening statement and five minutes for a rebuttal. After the opening statements and rebuttals, the debaters will have five minutes to ask each other questions. The debaters also will have 45 minutes to field questions from the audience. Each debater will receive five minutes for a closing statement.

The Cornell Political Forum is a 13-year-old student-run nonpartisan organization that publishes an award-winning quarterly journal and sponsors campus debates and symposia to enrich the Ithaca community and beyond. Its annual fall debate series and spring civil rights symposium are two of the most anticipated events at Cornell each year.

In addition to the Cornell Political Forum, the event's main sponsors include Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the College of Human Ecology, the Adelphic Cornell Educational Fund and the Student Assembly Finance Commission.

The Cornell Political Forum's World Wide Web site is at http://www.rso.cornell.edu:8000/cpf.