How the WTO boosts economies and opens societies.

Russia's pending membership in the World Trade Organization could alter its global economic standing and boost trading partners. But experts say Moscow must restructure its economy to benefit from joining the club.

Some analysts say the U.S.-China disagreement over tire imports could provoke a damaging trade dispute at a time when the two giant economies are needed to lead global economic growth.

A downbeat Davos summit brings warnings of trade protectionism into the limelight. Economists say these concerns should be taken into account as leaders of industrialized nations craft economic stimulus plans.

The collapse of global trade talks prompted some analysts to pronounce the WTO’s Doha round dead. Counterintuitively, some free-trade hawks say this might not be such a bad thing.

Negotiations in the Doha trade round have been revived, but the core disagreements on agriculture that stalled the talks last summer persist.

With time running out, top officials are trying to revive the struggling Doha trade round, once touted as salvation for impoverished nations. But some experts say the attention of big powers, reflecting a growing mood of protectionism, has already shifted to smaller bilateral trade deals.

With a chill setting in on the Geneva-based world trade talks, the Bush administration has shifted into high gear on negotiating smaller free trade agreements. But there are mixed views on how much the new deals matter and what they are doing to the global trading system.

Global trade negotiators have reached an impasse on efforts to reduce barriers on farm goods. Without a deal soon, experts fear it may be too late to rescue the "Doha Development Round," posing risks to the credibility of the World Trade Organization.

Edward Alden writes that the U.S.-European Union Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations are "the biggest consolation prize in the history of international trade liberalization."

The WTO talks between the G-4 nations—Brazil, India, the United States and the European Union—have collapsed yet again, and the U.S.'s inability to respond to long-standing, world-wide demands for the reduction of its (and the EU's) agricultural subsidies are mostly to blame, argue Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya.

The WTO's Pascal Lamy discusses global trade and the state of the international economy.