ABSTRACT
Taking part in an academic forum like this is refreshing although very different from the ministerial meetings I have attended regularly over the past seven years at the IMF, OECD, Nordic Council of Ministers, EFTA and a myriad of other organizations, formal and informal. It seems to me that the proliferation of international gatherings and groupings, large and small, dealing with economic, financial and trade issues is in itself a sign of the growing interdependence and globalization we have witnessed over the past few decades.
