The political economy of protection after the Uruguay round

This paper discusses the interplay between domestic policies and foreign interests under the institutional framework to be administered by’ the World Trade Organization (WTO). It presents a theoretical model that treats the WTO as the forum for an overlapping game which provides the rules for the maintenance of an open trading system among economies that are periodically submitted to protectionist pressures. Overlapping games occur when a particular player is engaged at the same time in games against distinct opponents, and when the strategy pursued in one game limits strategies available in the other.