Regional Trade Agreements in Asia - Implications for the Multilateral Trade System

The second occurred in with the creation of the WTO at the end of the long-running Uruguay Round negotiations. In the new age of COVID, it remains unclear what follows this latest state of play in the WTO, when it will take place, and whether hopefully it might blossom into a fourth transformation with a reborn multilateral trading system that can thrive for many more years to come.

A next age for the WTO and the system it represents is not a given. The current crisis is more persistent and fundamental than any other that preceded it since , clearly pre-dating the bomb-throwing tactics of the Trump administration.

The Challenges Facing the Multilateral Trading System in Addressing Global Public Policy Objectives

In the somewhat parochial, although immensely important, day-to-day world of the WTO, a silver lining to the dark storm cloud that has engulfed the planet in the form of this pandemic is that the next Ministerial Conference, which had been scheduled for Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan in June, is now postponed.

It appears likely to be rescheduled for sometime in perhaps best if later rather than earlier in the year , with the venue currently up in the air. What had been clear before COVID struck was that Nur Sultan was highly likely to be a colossal failure, if not on the scale of Seattle in , probably more of one than Cancun in Nur Sultan was not going to produce a range of outcomes to significantly alter these circumstances. In fact, it was more likely to generate a couple of dramatic showdowns, not least of which would have been over duties on electronic commerce.

No one country is fully to blame. The drift and malaise in the WTO has been a collective failure over a number of years—a lack of leadership, with only brief exceptions, such as the effort to conclude the Trade Facilitation Agreement TFA in Bali in ; a frequent resort to entrenched bad habits, particularly in pitting the developing world against the developed one and engaging in action-numbing group think; and an inability, again with the exception of the TFA, to find new or rediscover old creative ways to achieve breakthroughs.

Ironically, now there is breathing space and an opportunity to be successful in doing all of those things, even if the mechanics of interacting between and among national representatives are more challenging than ever before. Here are a few ideas for making the most of the situation and shifting from a scenario of failure two months from now in Nur Sultan to one of success in fourteen to twenty months ahead.

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

First and foremost, cheerleaders for the WTO should encourage a variety of current and prospective plurilateral negotiations that can produce outcomes by next year and start to create a new foundation of rules for the future. These present the best opportunities for new agreements in the WTO. The ongoing plurilateral negotiation on e-commerce can be completed by , although the configuration of countries in a final agreement may have to shift to achieve consensus on a meaningful set of new disciplines. Others underway include investment facilitation, domestic regulation of services, and promotion of micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises MSMEs.

A future area for plurilateral work could cover good regulatory practices to promote greater transparency, accountability, and predictability in trade-related regulatory matters. Ideas are also floating around for plurilateral negotiations to eliminate tariffs and non-tariff measures on medical supplies.

Second, WTO Members must adapt to a new reality on dispute settlement and hope for better days in the future.

Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements as a Challenge to the Multilateral Trading System

Yet, it is clear that the WTO has to adjust to an altered policy-making context. Multilateral trade negotiations are unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. The WTO Secretariat, the Committee system and the Dispute Settlement Body DSB will have to fill the void left by the collapse of the Doha Round and adjust the multilateral trade regime to the evolving realities of global trade in order to maintain its effectiveness and efficiency.

The following proposals aim at strengthening the organisation in this regard:. A cause and a symptom of the collapse of the Doha Round is the unseen surge in preferential trade agreements PTAs and plurilateral agreements PAs during the last decade. States increasingly turn away from cumbersome multilateral negotiations toward regional and plurilateral venues. The following proposals may help the WTO to assume its new role:. Trade and Investment 3 Ideas to….

Replacement screws on the ship at the dock. Bestellt am Trade and Investment. Emily Benson, Dr. Christian Bluth, Dr. Cora Jungbluth, Thomas Rausch.

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