| Since the late 1990s, the global regional economic integration has developed dramatically, causing a third wave and being on and on. The rapid development of the regional trading system has a huge impact on the multilateral trading system which plays a cornerstone role in the WTO. In such situation, the regional free trade agreements in the future are likely to play a more important role. Consequently, many scholars have proposed that the regional trading system must be superior to the multilateral trading system and even replaces the multilateral trading system soon. However, it should be noted that the WTO multilateral trading system is still the best way to comply with the global trend of economic integration system. The existence of institutional arrangements for regional trade under the WTO framework as a legal basis has formed a lot of the sub-system of rules in the global multilateral trading system and makes a joint effort to promote the liberalization of trade and economic integration process. At the same time, we should also note that multilateral trading system has deficiencies, such as the clause 24 of GATT, prior review mechanism. We can improve the multilateral trading system by comparing with the regional trade institutions and ultimately achieve the global economic integration which is the goal of all mankind. |
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