Trade, Regionalism and the Threat to Multilateralism

Globalization is having a profound effect on the political economy of trade. 1 Over the past decade more countries than ever before have been persuaded to push aside protective barriers and further integrate into the world economy, attracted by the possibilities of world markets. These new entrants include a wide range of developing countries and the former Soviet or Eastern bloc economies. The result is a pattern of international trade which poses significant challenges to the multilateral regime which evolved under the auspices of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) and continues under the World Trade Organization (the WTO).