Is the contemporary global trading system really at the brink of colapse? Beginning with a detailed discussion of the World Trade Organisation and the Uruguay Round and its achievements, this book delves into the causal factors behind the failure to launch the new round of multilateral trade negotiations in Seattle in December 1999. Dilip K. Das tries to determine the precise point reached by the global trading system and map out a way forward, exploring the likely items to be included in the agenda for the new round of multilateral trade negotiations and provides contours for a post-Seattle global trading system. Global Trading System at Crossroads comes up with new perspectives on the benefits of trade liberalisation, lessons to be learned from the successful cases of this and why it often receives weak political underpinning. The author believes the launch of the Seattle negotiations was fordoomed, but that the action agenda, although complex, can be crafted in a prioritised manner, striking a balance between various conflicting interests. The old negotiating process seems to have out-lived its utility and the contemporary trading system needs to devise a new one. The transparency or opacity of the negotiation process is also explored, as well as the improvements needed to make it functional. Various computable general equilibrium exercises reveal that the new round of multilateral trade negotiations would bring in substantial welfare gains. This book provides an excellent overview of the contemporary global trading system and will be very useful to advanced students and professional economists. It will also greatly benefit policy makers and active participants in trade and global diplomacy.