The Pugel text has built a loyal following through 11 editions by providing many helpful features to readers. The Twelfth Edition continues to offer these features, which include the following.

• In Chapter 5 on Growth and Trade, there is a section on how openness to trade can enhance a country’s economic growth. In the post-Cold War era, this subject, like all the ones below, will factor significantly into economic decisions faced both by business people and policy makers.
• The Euro: this major economic event, dominating discussions throughout the world, is now discussed prominently throughout the text. The Euro is introduced in Chapter 1 as an important change that makes International Economics an exciting field to study, then it is revisited frequently in the text: -In Chapter 16 as a box, "Birth of a Currency" -Throughout Parts 3, 4, and 5 in examples -In Chapter 20 when key features of current global monetary systems are presented -And in Chapter 24 when government choice of exchange rate policies is examined.
• The text incorporates recent exchange rate crises in Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Russia and Brazil, especially in Chapter 20 in the coverage of the current exchange rate system, in Part 4 in the discussion of macroeconomic policy issues, and in Chapter 26 in the section on Financial Crises.
• Consistent discussion of and reference to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in international trade policy.
• Export Dumping: the material on the dumping of exports in Chapter 10 (Pushing Exports) includes data on recent anti-dumping actions and the discussion of the use of anti-dumping policy as a protectionist device. This is important because the number of countries that use these anti-dumping policies has been rising, and the U.S. is now a major user of these policies and a major target of them.
• NAFTA: the discussion of NAFTA includes a treatment of the important rules of origin. MERCOSUR, the free trade area of South American countries, is also discussed; this is significant because this is the first effective free trade area among developing countries.
• The Environment: the section on trade and the environment grapples with questions such as "Is free trade anti-environment?" and "Is the WTO anti-environment?" The examination of the environmental impact of trade includes a serious discussion of domestic and trans-border pollution plus a rigorous discussion global environmental problems, and a look at the effect of the provisions of NAFTA on the environment. There is a sharp focus on the economic analysis of the subject; students are therefore endowed with an intuitive understanding of the concepts.
• Chapter 13 (Trade Policies for Developing and Transition Countries): This includes a section that focuses on trade policies in the transition economies (Central and Eastern Europe as well as the former Soviet Union). Emphasis is given here to the speed of transition/cold turkey vs. more gradual approaches. Here there is also a summary table of trade reform, destination of exports, and changes in real GDP. As today’s students become tomorrow’s international business people, they need to come to learn about these new economic players.
• Chapter 14 (The Political Economy of Trade and Agriculture): The section on the politics of protectionism focuses on winners and losers in protectionism and the various types of political activities such as voting and lobbying, plus the different political institutions and processes. The chapter provides students with an improved framework for understanding the effect of different political pressures regarding such issues as approving NAFTA or the entry of China into the WTO.
• End-of-chapter questions: each chapter has at least ten questions and problems. Every odd-numbered problem has an answer provided at the back of the text. Students are able to check their understanding of the material more effectively.
• The text covers all of the conventional topics in International Economics while grappling with the issues that are being discussed in today’s economic journals and newspapers.
• Applications taken from real economic situations appear in two-color boxes, so students immediately see the relevance of theory to world economics.

The Twelfth Edition builds upon that base of strengths by introducing the following new features:

• New Topics and Examples Added: to keep the 12^th Edition as current as ever, the authors have added coverage of the very latest happenings in international economics, such as:
• President Bush’s new tariffs on steel imports
• The Euro’s complete replacement of 12 separate national currencies
• The rise of electronic brokering and how it’s changing how foreign exchange markets work
• The latest happenings of the World Trade Organization, including the addition of China and Taiwan and new trade negotiations
• The Argentine financial crisis
• The IMF’s huge loan to Turkey

• International Financial Crisis Chapter Moved Up: the chapter on international financial crises, which had been at the end of the book, is now included in Part III. This placement emphasizes the links of these crises to international financial flows and exchange rate policies.

• New AS/AD Framework Appendix: A new appendix presents the aggregate demand-aggregate supply framework as an approach to open-economy macroeconomics. This provides flexibility for instructors who would like to include this approach in their course.
• Shaded Boxes Now Labeled by Type: the shaded boxes that contain material separate from the text are now broken into three categories—Focus on Labor, Case Studies, and Extension. This will make it easier for instructors and students to see what kind of material is in the box, and how it relates to what is presented within the text of the chapter.

• Chapters 5 and 6 Reversed: in response to instructor feedback, the order of Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 has been reversed from the 11^th Edition. With this change all of the essentials of trade theories (productivity differences, factor endowments and factor proportions, product differentiation and monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and agglomeration based on external economies) are presented in consecutive chapters. The new Chapter 6 then can use these concepts and tools to examine issues of sectoral changes, trade, innovation, and growth.
• Key Strengths of Part II (Trade Policy) Enhanced: The discussion of nontariff barriers to trade in Chapter 8 has been sharpened. Chapter 10 now focuses completely on allegedly unfair trade (dumping and subsidies) and administered protection through antidumping and countervailing actions. A new box presents the examples of chicken, supercomputers and steel. In Chapter 12 the environmental effects of the Uruguay Round agreements as examined, adding strength to the book’s unique and powerful treatment of trade and environment. Enhancing this critical area of the text improves the entire book’s pedagogical value.
• The twelfth edition has a single chapter that examines international resource movements, focusing on multinational enterprises and labor migration. This is now in Part II of the book, because of its link to government policy issues, rather than at the end of the book as it was in the previous edition.
• Labor Issues Added: The book weaves discussion of labor issues into a number of chapters in Parts I and II. This topic is of great interest to students. The tour begins in Chapter 1, with a discussion of labor standards and conditions, issues prominent in the Seattle protests against the WTO and the ongoing protests against globalization. It continues through boxes that Focus on Labor in Chapters 3, 4, 6, and 9. Labor issues are also prominent in the discussion of the winners and losers from free trade in Chapters 4 and 5, trade adjustment assistance in Chapter 9, and labor migration in Chapter 14.
• Discussion of the Determinants of Exchange Rates now in a Single Chapter: Chapter 18 begins with an analysis of exchange rates in the short run, drawing on concepts like uncovered interest parity that were just presented in Chapter 17. Chapter 18 then examines exchange rates in the long run (purchasing power parity and the monetary approach) It concludes with a discussion of overshooting as a rather odd way that we may get from the short run to the long run. This revision is helpful because it streamlines the teaching approach of this material and falls in line with the way many of instructors already teach this material.