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Regionalism Vs Multilateralism Regionalism Vs Multilateralism | Explained with the help of major trading blocks in the world economy | | The focus from the immediate consequences of regionalism for the economic welfare of the integrating partners to the question of whether it setup forces that encourage or discourage evolution toward globally freer trade. The answer is, “We don’t know yet.” One can build models that suggest either conclusion, but these models are still so abstract that they should be viewed as parables rather than sources of testable predictions. | | GITTE RAVI | 11/4/2012 | |
Introduction:-
Multilateralism is represented by the efforts on worldwide liberalization of international relations, which started in the field of trade in goods when General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was signed, and developed into broader fields of trade in services, investment, agricultural products, public procurement, and intellectual property rights with its more sophisticated successor – World Trade Organization (WTO). However this development is generally known, its connections to globalization and changing global conditions are not usually analysed; even though they influenced the position of multilateralism as a principal part of economic governance comprehensively: Together with Tussie (2003, p. 99), we can assume that “globalization is having a profound effects on the political economy of trade. More countries than ever before have been persuaded to push aside protective barriers and compete for world markets. These new entrants include a wide range of developing countries and the former Soviet or Eastern bloc economies.” As a matter of this fact, multilateralism changes qualitatively (even GATT became broader scale, which was definitively confirmed by the signature of GATS and TRIPS under the WTO framework), quantitatively (from original 23 GATT countries, WTO had 150 members in 2007 and further countries (i.e.