The Protocol is a win-win outcome for the environment and economics: it is a multilateral environmental agreement that provides solutions to economics, and it is also an economic treaty that provides necessary protection for the environment.

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Finally, by transforming a bilateral agreement into a multilateral one, the Clinton Administration would effectively be giving three additional nations a veto over changes to the ABM Treaty .

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

But it remains to be seen whether these country-to-country trade links will serve as building blocks or as substitutes for a wider, multilateral agreement.

ECONOMIST: Smaller steps

Those who urge that a global World Trade Organization agreement is preferable to a series of bilateral and multilateral pacts ignore the WTO's very limited progress towards creating global free trade.

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Moreover, the fear of losing favourable treatment in a bilateral agreement can deter governments from talking tough in multilateral negotiations.

ECONOMIST: Trade agreements

Of course, the big difference is that this is a multilateral, a six-nation process, where the 1994 agreement was more of a bilateral deal between the U.S. and North Korea.

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