ABSTRACT
Why does the World Trade Organization (WTO) exist? There are two ways to answer this question. One approach emphasizes the partic-ular historical process that led to the WTO’s creation. As we saw in Chapter 2 , the United States had an economic interest in creating the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) after World War II, and it had the power required to do so. The world trade system was thus shaped by the specific configuration of power and interests in place following the Second World War. An alternative approach emphasizes a more abstract logic. In this more abstract logic, the WTO exists because it helps governments work together in pursuit of mutual gain. In this approach, the world trade system is treated as a specific instance of the more general problem of cooperation.
