Abstract
The multilateral trading system was a vision of post-World War II Allied planners for all nations living in harmony within a system of liberalized trade and agreed rules. The organization they envisaged, the International Trade Organization (ITO) went too far and was not created. What replaced it was a contract, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an arrangement which governed for almost fifty years. To this ad hoc structure, in 1995 was added, an agreement on trade related intellectual property (TRIPS), a General Agreement on Service (GATS), a dispute settlement system and a nominal World Trade Organization (WTO). The largest trading nations make sure that this organization is weak. India lately joined by an apostate United States are open in doing so. The European Union and many others, through underinvestment in the common multilateral project, and resort to contingent protective measures, contribute to this result through inadvertence.
These remarks are in three parts: the value of the multilateral trading system (the WTO), a practical way to endow the system with agency, (inspired by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's World Economic Forum remarks) and, given that the occasion of these remarks is the launch of the Chinese edition of my book, Revitalizing the World Trading System, the choices faced by China. For the WTO, the steps recommended for resuscitating the multilateral trading system are nothing short of a revolution from within. As for China, it is potentially at a crossroads as to what role it will have in saving or undermining the trading system, whether its position is fully recognized, however, is open to question.
Drift is not a good option as the sound of the falls grows louder.
