A Step in the Wrong Direction

Abstract

WTO multilateralism has been under siege from many directions. In addition to those who support multilateralism in the domain of trade but argue it must come in a different guise (including the authors of this book) there are those who want to limit cooperation to a smaller number of, say, technologically advanced countries. There are also economic nationalists who barely believe in trade cooperation. This chapter adresses the negotiation of regional treaties prominent in the final years of the Obama administration. The Trump administration set back these efforts. Nonetheless, the attractiveness of mega-regionalism reveals a crisis in trade multilateralism that has arisen partly from the increasing unwillingness of less powerful states to accept whatever the powerful offer them, and partly from the increasing digital divide that undermines the extent to which trading partners have similar regulatory interests. The chapter raises worries about mega-regionalism diminishing the prospects of multilateralism in the service of trade justice.