Trade, and its regulation at the international level, has been at the center of diplomatic negotiations, controversies, and debates pretty much since its inception. Free trade, according to its advocates and supporters, is essential to promote, inter alia, economic growth, prosperity, and global peace. Critics and detractors of free trade, on the other hand, lament the negative impact of trade liberalization on, inter alia, domestic economies, labor, health, and the environment. International trade negotiations are often as long and complex as their outcome, in the form of legally binding trade agreements, and have a huge impact on domestic economies and peoples. International trade agreements, both at the global and regional level, have been the object of hard-fought negotiations and legal battles, and often the term trade “wars” has been used to describe tense trade disputes and the deterioration in trade relations between nations
Paolo Galizzi