Opportunities and Obligations

Opportunities and Obligations: New Perspectives on Global and U.S. Trade Policy, is an extraordinary collection of essays by leading trade officials, academic experts, and major stakeholders. The essays are divided into three topics: The global trading system and its future direction The range of views presented provides diverse perspectives on the future direction of the trading system, the challenges of the Doha Round, the aspirations of developing countries within the system, the future direction of rules, rights and obligations, the challenges faced by countries trying to join the WTO. Perspectives on the direction of US trade policy Leaders from the past Administration, both sides of the aisle in the U.S. House of Representatives, labor, business, a leading NGO as well as leading journalists and writers offer views about where U.S. trade policy should go to secure America's economic future. The global food crisis and how the trading system can help be part of the solution The run up of food prices internationally in 2007-08 and the efforts by many countries to restrict exports in the name of providing for citizens at home created some severe challenges for the global institutions and raised, within trade circles, the question of how trade could make a contribution to the alleviation of hunger and not exacerbate the problems of hunger. Papers in part three of the book look at the issue from the perspective of the WTO, the European Commission, and the United Nation's World Food Program.