The rapid growth of regional trading relationships in Europe, Asia, and Latin America has raised policy concerns about their impact on excluded countries and on the global trading system. Some observers worry that the multilateral system may be fracturing into discriminatory regional blocs....

Following the Versailles G-7 summit of 1982, most government officials and academic analysts downplayed the potential impact of exchange market intervention unless such intervention was permitted to affect national monetary policies. This study challenges the conventional wisdom. Using...