Choice Review

The World Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), have proven to be the most effective force for growth in international trade and specialization, and therefore economic growth in general, since the end of WW II. This volume addresses the need to reform the WTO as protectionist forces mount after the economic and financial turbulence of the 2000s and as the most recent trade liberalization initiative, the Doha Round, has run aground and individual countries busily cut their own bilateral trade deals. Contributors do an excellent job laying out the key issues. The book begins with the underlying rationale for WTO reform and then discusses in detail the WTO's decision-making machinery and its internal management; the role of transparency and public participation in its workings; and the threats and opportunities caused by regional trade initiatives, which have now been around long enough to assess their efficacy. As a work by multiple authors, the volume is inevitably somewhat uneven. And the content level in parts is so detailed as to sometimes obscure key discussion points. On the whole, however, this is an important resource for readers interested in this critical dimension of the global economy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through research collections. I. Walter New York University