Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Time for a re-think?

A piece in the WSJ by Razeen Sally highlights how the present round of multilateral trade negotiatons as well as the plethora of regional trade agreements across the world do not address the realities of 21st century trade.
"The Doha Round and the overwhelming majority of FTAs are wedded to an old vision of one country producing a good from beginning to end for export to another country. Most FTAs focus mainly on reducing tariff barriers. That makes these deals less relevant for a world in which a single good and its inputs can travel through multiple countries during assembly, in which tariff barriers are generally not the only or the most significant obstructions to trade, and in which trade in goods is only part of the overall trade picture."
Time for a rethink? Does trade in the real world happen inspite of trade agreements? Do trade agreements really facilitate 21st century trade realities?   

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