Abstract
Obama came to office during the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Trade was not at the centre of this crisis, unlike the events of the 1930s, when the infamous Smoot–Hawley tariffs set in motion a spiral of protectionist moves by the major trading powers, deepening the global depression. This time, the protectionist responses were mild; the world trading system as codified in the WTO and sustained by increasingly global supply chains held up. No real challenge was mounted to the system of global and regional rules. However, the Doha Round of WTO negotiations continued to languish, and the Obama Administration did not give the negotiations a new impetus, which could have helped to bring the negotiations to a conclusion and could have instilled new confidence into the world economy.
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Falke, A. (2011). No Ado About Nothing: Obama’s Trade Policies After 1 Year. In: Herrmann, C., Terhechte, J. (eds) European Yearbook of International Economic Law 2011. European Yearbook of International Economic Law(), vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14432-5_6
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