The long-term bad news for the north-south trades is the recent suspension of negotiations regarding further trade liberalisation measures within the World Trade Organization (WTO). Had these tradelanes got what they wanted, the major markets of the US, Europe and Japan, in particular, would have been further opened up to imports of agricultural products such as fruit, vegetables and cotton, all of which are containerisable. In return, these overseas gardens would have had to reduce their barriers to imports of manufactured goods.
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