ABSTRACT
Second, regarding our question ‘Does Trade Deliver What It Promises?’, the answer in the Asia-Pacific has to be a resounding ‘yes’: trade has delivered much more than trade theory, static as it was, initially predicted. The Asia Pacific has been and will continue to be the most rapidly growing, economically successful region of the world, and that growth has been built upon a strong export orientation, increasing openness and quite rapid reallocation of resources to accommodate evolving comparative advantage. The success of Asian-Pacific growth has generated new, more dynamic trade theories. What we tend to forget, or take for granted, is that export-oriented growth was possible precisely because of the post-war GATT-based global multilateral system which has provided tremendous, and increasing, market access opportunities to all who were capable of grasping them. The global trade system is not perfect, not a panacea, as we all know, but it is far better than the alternatives. Thank goodness for GATT and now for the WTO. Even if WTO is ‘resting’—and I think that is too negative a judgement-it is a strong, healthy multilateral trading system, and will remain so.
