ABSTRACT
As the new Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the former Director General of the World Trade Organization, trade agreements are a subject that interests me greatly. My government experience in Thailand has also shaped my thinking on this important issue, so I am very happy to have been given this opportunity to make some observations on the subject. I will address the important subject of this volume – economic integration in the Americas – but I will also attempt to set it in a broader context of regional and multilateral cooperation.
