ABSTRACT
The international trading system is at a crossroads. States are opening up their markets to foreign goods and services, and dismantling trade distorting measures, at the same time as they erect new barriers to trade and introduce new policies which interfere with normal trading patterns. Regional trade arrangements are being concluded which appear to challenge the traditional multilateral approach to trade liberalisation based on the principle of non-discrimination, even as efforts continue to liberalise trade on a global basis. Trade disputes, some of which develop into trade wars, erupt with seemingly greater regularity even as nations work together to establish a more lasting basis for co-operation in trade matters.
