Another tough year lies ahead for the World Trade Organization (WTO), for both the institution itself and for the integrity of the global rules embodied in the WTO Agreement.
The Economist recently called it a “fraying system,” one in danger of collapsing from its own weight, aided by ongoing discord and antagonism among member governments, centred on the US and China, both of whom “have flouted the underlying principle of the multilateral system, which is that trade should be governed by rules not power.”
Others have voiced concern about the future of the multilateral trading order and whether the WTO, the keystone of the system, can overcome internal tensions and divisions, complicated by the twin crises of climate change and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The question is whether the WTO will show itself capable of modernizing the rules of the trading system. Or will it continue to be bogged down in political wrangling and institutional in-fighting, unable to agree on anything, as the world moves on?...
This was excerpted from a January 2022 commentary by Lawrence L. Herman.