Future of the global trade order

Abstract

The inability of WTO Members to conclude the Doha Round has led many to question the effectiveness of one of the major pillars of global governance and the commitment of governments to multilateralism. As argued in the contributions to this volume, the performance of the international trade order is in fact much better than it is perceived to be. The WTO has enhanced the rule of law in commercial policy, as exemplified by its effective and unique dispute settlement mechanism. The trade order has also proven capable of accommodating large new trading nations, most notably China. Major shifts in economic power balances since the creation of the WTO in 1995 lie at the heart of the failure of the Doha Round and the turn by countries towards preferential trade agreements. These increasingly address areas of policy that are not covered, or are covered only tangentially, by the WTO, and raise important questions regarding the future of the world trade order. The contributors to this book make a strong case that it is past time that WTO Members move away from a business as usual approach, but also demonstrate that there are strong incentives for multilateral cooperation on both longstanding policy concerns – such as agricultural support policies – and new challenges associated with the global governance of the digital economy.