The History and Future of the World Trade Organization

摘要

When Craig Van Grasstek accepted the commission to write a history of the WTO, he must have surely been aware of the magnitude of the task he was undertaking. He rightly chose also to discuss the previous GATT period - without which a proper understanding of the WTO could not be reached-and therefore had to delve into archives covering some 60 years of trade policy as it has been carried out since the end of World War Ⅱ. This is an immense amount of documentation, extending over countless pages, encompassing minutes of meetings, reports, public pronouncements, books, inter-governmental negotiations of all kinds, as well as the results of highly intricate multilateral negotiations, among many other subjects.