ABSTRACT
Of all the policy arenas in which the emergence of global neoliberalism has been contested in recent years, trade has been most visible and controversial. The attention paid to trade by economists, policy analysts, government officials and the public across the globe is not misplaced. The proportion of total world economic activity accounted for by trade has risen steadily over the postwar period, and particularly over the past several decades. Moreover, during the 1990s trade negotiators across the North and the South have forged new, expansive agreements which have substantially liberalized the international flow of goods and services and even capital. The most encom-passing of these is the agreement reached during the Uruguay Round of negotiations over the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that generated the new World Trade Organization (WTO). This agreement followed closely on the heels of NAFTA, which will fully liberalize trade across North America over the next decade. For its part, the European Union has continued to make substantial progress toward the formation of a tightly integrated continental economy predicated on free trade and capital flows.
