ABSTRACT
This chapter1 examines the issues that came to the fore in the world trading system in 2001, as the trauma of the failure of Seattle receded and negotiations over launching a new World Trade Round were gathering speed, in preparation for the WTO ministerial meeting in the autumn of that year. This is not an abstract analysis of the world trading system, but the observations of a practitioner, involved in those negotiations, standing back from the workface, and drawing out from recent experience some thoughts on the state of health of the world trading system and of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which polices that system, and on possible future developments.
