Professor Ross Garnaut:

Some economists warned of the emerging dangers of proliferation of preferential trading arrangements when they became apparent from late 2000, and argued against the early and decisive steps that Australia took to hasten the Asia Pacific region down the preferential path. But that debate has come and gone. Mark Antony would have said that it was time to bury the old traditions of free trade, not to praise them. The task now is to analyse the emerging realities, and to apply the lessons to ongoing policy development. [PDF]