Multilateral trade agreements serve the interests of today's global production system in a way that the alternative — a ......... system of bilateral agreements — does not.

Victor K. Fung gives his point of view as a businessman on what is at stake and why WTO negotiators have an interest in finding common ..........

Global rules ......... global production.

In the old days, manufacturing would be done "in-house", but manufacturing carries a completely different meaning today: products are no longer made ..........

Increasingly, production is ......... across different factories in different countries — it is becoming globalized.

Information technology and logistics help dissect the value-added process into ......... parts, with factories, locations and countries assigned for each stage according to their competitive advantage.

Over the past several years, we have seen ......... in Seattle and Cancn, with what appears to be a widening divergence of views between developed and developing countries, and a rise in bilateral trade agreements.

Bilateralism distorts the flow of goods: it ......... barriers, creates friction, reduces flexibility, raises prices and hinders companies' ability to bring new countries into the global production system.

Of particular concern are 'rules of origin', which define where a product is made and determine what kind of market ......... it will have.

With each new bilateral agreement, considerations relating to rules of origin multiply and become more complex in the ......... trade experts call 'the spaghetti bowl effect'.