The appointment of Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi as Director-General of the World Trade Organization in 2002 reflects the changing power realities within the WTO. The growing sense within the developing and least developed countries - an overwhelming majority of WTO members - that they have been cheated in the way the Uruguay Round commitments have been implemented is gathering momentum. And this swelling tide, as appears startlingly in this eye-opening collection of analytical studies, in turn represents a determination on the part of civil society to confront the greatest challenge facing the world today: the ever-increasing inequality that characterizes the division of income and assets on our planet. The premises from which the sixteen authors of The Changing Face of World Trade begin may be summarized as follows. In a world in which three individuals - Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Warren Buffett - own as much as the 600 million people in the 48 least developed countries, something is obviously wrong. As long as globalisation and trade liberalisation continue to reward the "success" of a tiny minority and punish the hundreds of millions who lack special skills and expertise, they sow the seeds of their own destruction. It is up to the WTO to take the initiative in managing globalisation in such a way that its benefits are shared far more equally among individuals than is today the case.

This challenge must be met if we are not to slide backwards into a less interdependent, and far poorer, world. Among the specific issues researched and analysed here are the following: the irrelevance of GATS and TRIPS to the developing world; the failure of the "carrot" of enhanced access to developed world markets for agricultural products, textiles, clothing, and footwear to materialize; the importance of the rules-based WTO system to developing nations as a crucial alternative to resolution through power politics; internal WTO governance and controversies, including the important role of the Secretariat as negotiator and the implementation phase of the dispute settlement understanding; the continuing resistance to linking trade and environment; the place of human rights in the international trading system; the growth of the U.S.-led return to a unilateralist and interventionist approach to global problems; and, the likely impact of the double scourge of AIDS and terrorism on flows of trade, capital, people, and knowledge. It will quickly be observed that this book represents an approach to world trade theory that will not be welcome in some circles. Yet few will deny its enormous value as a "reality check." No concerned policy maker, official or academic can afford to ignore it.