ABSTRACT
As the multilateral trading system (MTS) enters the new millennium and the debate on the scope and nature of a millennium round begins in earnest, it is useful to reflect on central issues facing the MTS. This chapter summarizes the broad strategic choices facing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO) system under the heading of widening versus deepening. The pressure to widen comes from the increased number of countries accepting the liberal international trade paradigm for the world economy. This provides an opportunity of establishing a genuinely global system covering trade and investment. Widening would imply building a unified system of rules applying to all countries, including countries at different levels of development, as well as the major transition economies of China and Russia. At the same time there is pressure to deepen the coverage of the GATT/WTO rules to include more issues and in particular ‘behind the border’ issues concerning regulatory policies. This pressure comes from the increased international interdependence of economies as a result of increased trade and investment flows (globalization). Deepening implies more intrusion into domestic policy preferences with the result that agreement on a unified global system of rules for countries at all levels of development becomes more difficult.
