Why China should lead the mission to save the ailing WTO and revive multilateralism
- China, having benefited tremendously from WTO membership, is now in a position to spearhead WTO reforms as a bridge between developed and developing nations
- It won’t be easy but Beijing can get the ball rolling in areas of agreement such as e-commerce regulations and marine plastic pollution
The fate of the World Trade Organisation hangs in the balance. On December 10, just a single judge will be left on its Appellate Body as the terms of two remaining judges expire.
While the Appellate Body crisis is the most urgent malady afflicting the WTO, it is by no means the only one. For many years, the organisation has failed to keep up with important shifts in the global economy.
Its norms and rules are increasingly outdated for a world linked by complex value chains and growing digital and services trade.
By working with other countries, it can take key steps to galvanise action and get the WTO back on the road to recovery.
At a critical moment for global trade, China can help save the WTO
First, China should work with a “coalition of the willing” and enact an emergency response plan to resuscitate the dispute settlement mechanism.
In particular, China can cooperate more closely with allied interests such as the European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan to explore solutions.
One possibility is to form an alternative mechanism via a plurilateral agreement: one that involves a group of countries rather than all members. This would restore the WTO’s ability to enforce rules while upholding its authority.
Blocking China’s blockchain push will leave the world worse off
Rather than trying to tackle long-standing intractable problems from the current deadlocked state, issues should be prioritised where there is common ground to make breakthroughs and get the ball rolling.
Members self-designated as “developing” range from some of the world’s poorest countries to industrialised economies such as Singapore and South Korea.
Asia-Pacific needs the WTO to stay relevant in an uncertain world
While often not applied in practice, the “special and differential treatment” granted to developing countries has become a bone of contention in reform negotiations.
As a bridge between the developed and developing world, China could help to refine ways of classifying countries that reduce friction with industrialised members but protect reasonable allowances for developing countries.
Wang Huiyao is the founder of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing-based non-governmental think tank