Compatibility of regional and multilateral trading agreements: reforming the WTO process[]

Within its first year of existence the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO) has demonstrated that it is capable of acting quickly to address long-standing problems that have plagued the GATT. The creation of the Committee to examine new regional agreements, at the very minimum, will greatly improve the efficiency with which the working-party process has been conducted in the past. More important, it will provide the means to systematically analyze common features of new and existing agreements and conclusions on the basis of fact. With the new focus that will come to regional trading arrangements through the creation of the Committee in the WTO, the December 1996 Singapore Ministerial meeting could provide the logical forum for WTO members to present conclusions or recommendations on how regional agreements can further complement - rather than compete with - the WTO rules and thereby bring greater coherence to the rules-based multilateral trading system.