A plan to revitalise the World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is experiencing a serious crisis arising from tensions that are internal to the global trading system and other tensions rooted in domestic political constraints in the United States and China and the geopolitical rivalry between them. In this context, four critical areas for WTO reform can be identified: joint action to support sustainable development, improving disciplines on subsidies, facilitating the integration of plurilateral agreements into the WTO framework and, as a culmination of the reform process, reforming dispute settlement. WTO reform will require willingness on the part of the European Union to lead in establishing a coalition of middle powers based on its network of free trade agreements. Because of uncertainty about the extent to which the US and China are prepared to engage, the EU and its partners should also be ready to take plurilateral initiatives outside the WTO, provided these contribute to the reinforcement of the rules-based trading system.