ABSTRACT
In Chapters 6 and 7 we examined the consequences of unilateral trade policy choices by a single country. We recognized plausible exceptions to the claim that free trade always improves a country’s economic efficiency, but those gains often come at the expense of foreign countries. Nationalistic policies of protectionism and the breakdown of international commerce during the worldwide depression of the 1930s provided special impetus for subsequent efforts to restore a more open trading system. Economists debate how much regional trade agreements, such as those surveyed in Chapter 9, have contributed to this process, in comparison with multilateral agreements. In this chapter we consider the changing nature of national commercial policies, and we particularly focus on multilateral cooperation through the GATT and the WTO.
