LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain the origin and role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and General Agreement on Tariffs and

Trade (GATT)

• Discuss the significance and provide examples of regional trading agreements

• Analyze trade policy at the national level

• Evaluate long-term trends in barriers to trade

These public policy arguments about how nations should react to globalization and trade are fought out at

several levels: at the global level through the World Trade Organization and through regional trade agreements

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20.4 • How Governments Enact Trade Policy: Globally, Regionally, and Nationally 489

between pairs or groups of countries.

The World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was officially born in 1995, but its history is much longer. In the years

after the Great Depression and World War II, there was a worldwide push to build institutions that would tie the
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