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Article: APEC and the WTO: which way forward for trade liberalization?(Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation; World Trade Organization)
- Article from:
- Contemporary Southeast Asia
- Article date:
- August 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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APEC's decision at its Kuala Lumpur leaders' meeting in November 1998 to refer its programme of "Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization" (EVSL) to the World Trade Organization (WTO) confirmed what skeptics had long asserted: APEC is not an effective forum for inter-state negotiation of contentious trade issues.(1) Why might the WTO succeed where APEC has failed? And what roles remain for APEC in its pursuit of trade liberalization and facilitation in the Asia-Pacific region? These are the principal questions this article seeks to address.
The Political Economy of Trade Liberalization
For students of trade policy, the lack of congruence between the ...