Governments, Non-State Actors and Trade Policy-Making

One of the most pressing issues confronting the multilateral trade system is the challenge posed by the rapid proliferation of preferential trade agreements. Much has been written about why governments might choose to negotiate preferentially or multilaterally, but until now it has been written almost exclusively from the perspective of governments. We know very little about how non-state actors view this issue of ‘forum choice’, or how they position themselves to influence choices by governments about whether to emphasize PTAs or the WTO.