Part I The Economic and Institutional Context of the World Trading System, Ch.2 The Evolution of the World Trading System — the Economic and Policy Context
Gilbert R Winham
From: The Oxford Handbook of International Trade Law
Edited By: Daniel Bethlehem, Donald McRae, Rodney Neufeld, Isabelle Van Damme
- Subject(s):
- Developing countries — Intellectual property — Tariffs — Development — Most-favoured-nation treatment (MFN) — Foreign Direct Investment — BITs (Bilateral Investment Treaties) — 1815 to World War I — World War I to World War II — Since World War II
Trade is the act of exchanging goods and services through barter or sale. International trade is the extension of commercial exchange outside a country’s borders to the international arena; it is as old as the system of nation States, and by analogy extends back in history to collectivities such as tribes, city-states, or other political units. The term ‘world trading system’ refers to the various contemporary arrangements of trading relations between countries, and particularly the system of multilateral rules initiated at midtwentieth century following two great...