Considerations and reflections on multilateralism and subsidies under the GATT / WTO

Abstract

This article’s main objective is to investigate the proposals from several theorists of international relations to describe the emergence and evolution of multilateralism from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; on this tour it is verified the conceptual components that characterize and constitute the contemporary multilateralism and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) whose mission, until the constitution in the 90’s of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has been promoting a healthy international trade. We conclude from this study that multilateralism is not indifferent to the events and political, economic and social facts from their context, which have resulted in various economic and financial crises currently. So the “new multilateralism”, to deal with the circumstances result of the financial and economic crisis that crack and afflict the international structure, must be made of flexible structures able to adequately articulate the points of interconnection between the institutions from the public and the private sector, promoting a solution to the problem with a sense of participatory responsibility to monitor the conditions of world political economy of global trade within a new capitalist order.