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The editors have succeeded in bringing together an excellent mix of leading scholars and practitioners. No book on the WTO has had this wide a scope before or covered the legal framework, economic and political issues, current and would-be countries and a outlook to the future like these three volumes do. 3000 pages, 80 chapters in 3 volumes cover a very interdiscplinary field that touches upon law, economics and politics.

During last couple of years, the academic community, national civil servants in charge of trade policies, and employees of international economic organizations have intensively discussed reforming the World Trade Organization. All participants of the debate tend to agree that the system of multilateral trade regulation in its present form does not match expectations and requirements. There is less unanimity regarding the reasons that have resulted in the poor performance of the institution under review. As for possible ways to solve the problem, existing opinions differ dramatically. Both expert views and official proposals of WTO members (Canada, EU, Japan, China and some others) deal with prospects for the Doha round, modalities of future agreements, decision-making process, and a range of other questions waiting for uneasy answers.

One of the biggest challenges facing the World Trade Organization is to determine its own mission. The failure to launch new trade talks at the WTO's Ministerial Conference at Seattle in late 1999 was due, in large part, to disagreements between members about what "new" issues should be placed on the negotiating agenda. These problems continued to stymie the WTO in the run-up to the Doha ministerial meeting in 2001.