WTO's Lamy Criticizes Small Free-Trade Deals |
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July 20, 2011
The World Trade Organization's chief on Wednesday took aim at the growing number of small free-trade deals being signed among the group's 153 member nations, saying such deals could limit opportunities with countries outside the group.
The World Trade Organization's chief on Wednesday took aim at the growing number of small free-trade deals being signed among the group's 153 member nations, saying such deals could limit opportunities with countries outside the group. Such deals might be beneficial to the countries involved, Director-General Pascal Lamy said in a speech to trade officials in Geneva, but they might also "lock in their members to a particular regulatory regime, reducing the potential for trade to prosper with countries outside the arrangement." As the Doha Round, an attempt at a global trade deal, has dragged on unsuccessfully, "bilateral deals have gained in appeal to impatient trade ministers," said Simon Evenett, an economist at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.
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