They predict that further liberalization of the world's trading rules will not occur until after a new U.S. president and Congress have been elected and a new governance structure has been put in place at the WTO. Governments and businesses looking to open new markets will now be likely to turn to bilateral or regional agreements and to resort to unilateral sanctions.
See "After Seattle, the WTO Risks Getting Left Behind as the World Trades On", Steven Pearlstein, International Herald Tribune, December 8, 1999