The past quarter of a century has witnessed among many countries across the development spectrum an unprecedented level of activity in the process of trade liberalization. In many respects, this most recent phase of global integration among economies stands out in comparison to all other phases that have occurred in the past few centuries.1 Most notably, for the first time more than 180 States have engaged in the process of integrating their economies with those of their partners. The second crucial feature of the current phase of globalization is the backing it has received from multilateral institutions. While the multilateral financial institutions provided the initial impetus for the globalization process, the multilateral trading system – now having a widely accepted institution of its own – has provided a forum for countries to find ways of deepening and widening the process of trade (and investment) liberalization.

(MARKHUB publication)