The GATT Secretariat, now called the World Trade Organization (WTO), aims both to dismantleexisting protection that reduces efficiency and to extend trade liberalization to more and morecountries. Tariff levels throughout the world are now as low as they have ever been, and tradeliberalization has been an engine of growth for many economies. The consequence has been asubstantial growth in world trade.NAFTA, the EU and the TPPIn North America, recent policy has led to a free trade area that covers theflow of trade be-tween Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The Canada/United States free trade agreement(FTA) of 1989 expanded in 1994 to includeMexico in theNorth American FreeTradeAgreement(NAFTA). The objectivein both cases was to institutefree trade between these countries in mostgoodsand services. Thismeant the elimination of tariffsover aperiod of yearsand thereductionor removal of non-tariff barriers to trade, with a few exceptions in specific products and culturalindustries. A critical component of the Agreement was the establishment of a dispute-resolutionmechanism, under which disputes would be resolved by a panel of ‘judges’ nominated from themember economies. Evidenceof thesuccessof theseagreementsisreflected in thefact that Cana-dianexportshavegrowntomorethan30percent of GDP, andtradewiththeUnitedStatesaccountsfor thelion’sshareof Canadian tradeflows. Asof 2015, most of thePacific Rim economieswereengaged in negotiating anew tradepact – theTrans-Pacific Partnership.TheEuropean Union wasformed after World War II, with theprimeobjectiveof bringing about agreater degreeofpoliticalintegrationinEurope. Twoworldwarshadlaidwastetotheir economiesand social fabric. Closer economic tiesand greater tradewereseen asthemeansof achieving thisintegration. The Union was called the “Common Market” for much of its existence. The Unionoriginally had six member states, but as of 2015 the number is 28, with several other candidatecountries in the process of application, most notably Turkey. The European Union (EU) has asecretariat and parliament in Bruxelles. You canfind moreabout theEU at.
