The Trade Policy-Making Process Level One of the Two Level Game: Country Studies in the Western Hemisphere

This publication reports the results of a project on trade policy-making in eight Western Hemisphere nations jointly conducted by the IDB's INTAL and ITD, the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, and the Inter-American Dialogue. The project focuses on the question of how best to accommodate the participation of non-state actors in the formulation of national trade policies and negotiating agendas. In early 2001, analysts from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and the United States were invited to prepare short essays describing the trade policy-making process in their countries -with special focus on the nature and structure of consultation mechanisms with private groups. The papers were presented at a June 15 workshop at the IDB with the authors and a small group of outside commentators- and subsequently revised to reflect the discussion. The main conclusions of the entire exercise are set out in the preface prepared by project director Sylvia Ostry of the Munk Center.