The U.S.’s Exit from Multilateral Trading System

PARK KYUNG SUK

doi:10.18107/japs.2021.28.3.003

The WTO multilateral trading system have been weakened, while the regionalism has proliferated since the creation of the WTO. In this study we examine the aspects of the U.S.’s exit from multilateral trading system, and specify the time of exit. For this purpose, we use the ‘exit, voice, and loyalty’ concepts proposed by Hirschman. According to our analysis, the U.S. reduced substantially the role as a supplier of multilateral trade rules after the stalemate of the Doha Development Agenda with the diminished loyalty to the WTO multilateral system. Since then, mega-FTAs, plurilateral agreements or bilateral agreements have taken a central role in further liberalization of trade. The U.S.’s exit as a consumer of multilateral trade rules began with the revival of aggressive unilateralism and the blockage of the appointment of the Appellate Body members of the WTO in Trump Administration. It implies that the U.S. refuse the dispute settlement system of the WTO. The aggressive unilateralism based on Section 301, Super 301 and Special 301 in 1970’s and 1980’s should be considered not as a real exit, but as a threat of exit from the GATT multilateral system. It was a measure adopted by the U.S. to promote the effects of their voices in the Tokyo Round and the Uruguay Round. The US-Canada FTA and NAFTA, the first meaningful preferential trade agreements since World War II, used as a leverage for the beginning and the closure of the Uruguay Round. The Competition Liberalization policy taken in Bush administration cannot be considered as an exit from the WTO multilateral system. Most of the countries with which the U.S. concluded or negotiated a bilateral FTA were economically unimportant underdeveloped countries. The ultimate objective of the Competitive Liberalization policy was the conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda negotiation.

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* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

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