Moore Rejects Regional Trade Agreements
WTO Director General Mike Moore took part in the three day foreign investment Partnership Summit organized by the Andhra Pradesh government in Hyderabad January 9 - 11, 2001. Moore defended the multilateral trade system as the only framework that could spread benefits globally through economic growth.
No other trading mechanism could discipline the exploitation by advanced countries of intellectual property and research and development. Moore also indicated that the continued absence of multilateral liberalisation encourages the major trading countries to act unilaterally and carve up markets through preferential trade agreements.
He suggested that the formation of regional trade groups would suck "oxygen" from the multilateral system and the trend would not be a healthy one in the long run as it would lead to chaotic trading conditions.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi saved his views until the January 25 - 30 Davos World Economic Forum. At Davos, he is reported to have said that he does not share the concerns others have about initiatives to create regional free-trade agreements. In his view, it is possible for free trade agreements and the WTO centred multilateral system to coexist without competing with each other.
ISSN 1492-7187, TRADE POLICY MONITOR, Volume II Issue 1, January 2001,
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