In the absence of a grand bargain on trade, the Bush administration has pursued bilateral and multilateral pacts with regional blocs.

Meanwhile, the Indian and Pakistan governments agreed to a bilateral pact to extend passenger train and freight services between the two countries until 2010.

In addition to bilateral non-aggression pacts, the twentieth century saw multilateral treaties defining entirely new restrictions against going to war.

"The reality is that the Japanese are probably right, a bilateral pact doesn't make much sense anymore," an American executive said recently.

Textile trade is currently governed by an international agreement under which the U.S. has negotiated bilateral pacts with exporting countries.

A proliferation of bilateral pacts would undermine current U.S. efforts to negotiate multilateral, non-discriminatory trade agreements.

Furthermore, bilateral pacts can damage the U.S. economy by diverting trade from low-cost foreign suppliers.

Chile and the U.S. have agreed to discuss the potential of a bilateral free-trade pact.

The bet (which has evolved into more of a bilateral pact) is still on.

It pushes countries into bilateral, market-sharing pacts with America which are the opposite of open trade: outcomes set by lawyers, not traders.