What is in this book

This book brings together forty-five case studies from economies around the world, each of which illustrates how governments, business and civil society manage their country's participation in the World Trade Organization.

The case studies make a mosaic image of what it takes, at the start of the twenty-first century, to manage the integration of an economy into the global trading system and what the rewards, or penalties, of integration can be for economies of all sizes, including many of the world's poorest and most resource-poor economies.

They show, through ‘real world’ examples, that joining the WTO and taking advantage of WTO membership is not something to be left to government alone. It calls for the participation of many different ‘stake-holders’ in an economy, including goods and services producers, industry associations, consumer associations, civil society groups and academic analysts.

They also show that people representing those different national interests and institutions take most of the significant decisions affecting an economy's participation in the global trading system. The WTO itself has only a secondary role; it helps to define the context of a trade policy decision but doesn't compel the choice of one policy over another.

The case studies include success stories, some stories of failure or frustration, one or two ‘disasters’ and some stories that are open-ended because the final outcome is not yet known.