Title: Trade liberalization and civil society: the Japanese policy formulation process

Authors: Takashi Hattori

Addresses: Ministry of Labor, Japan

Abstract: The Civil Society has grown more interested in trade liberalization. The Seattle WTO Ministerial Meeting failed to launch its new round of international economic negotiations. Among the reasons for this were the activities of NGOs, the groups that are at the forefront of the civil society. This paper takes a new look at the role of the civil society in international economic negotiations. By looking at the guidelines by the WTO and the approaches by the Japanese government, we will examine how the civil society takes on an important but limited role in the international policy formulation process.

Keywords: trade liberalisation; civil society; Japan; policy formulation; international economic negotiations; WTO.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2000.053999

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2000 Vol.2 No.2, pp.172-189

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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