改革世界贸易组织：跨大西洋合作和全球贸易体系的前景.docxVIP

Contents Summary 2 Introduction 4 WTO reform and COVID-19 6 The US and the WTO 9 Dispute settlement in crisis 13 Revitalizing the WTO’s negotiation function 23 Institutional issues and reform 31 Challenges for a transatlantic partnership 36 Key issues for a ‘WTO 2.0’ 40 Conclusion 49 About the author 51 Acknowledgments 52 Summary The World Trade Organization (WTO), which has been the cornerstone of the multilateral rules-based global trading system since its inception in 1995, faces a make-or-break moment. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, all three of the organization’s functions – providing a negotiation forum to liberalize trade and establish new rules, monitoring trade policies, and resolving disputes between its 164 members – faced challenges. To reinvigorate the WTO, reform needs to cover all three pillars. Of particular note is the need for a permanent solution to the crisis of the WTO’s Appellate Body and dispute settlement system. The Appellate Body’s operations have effectively been suspended since December 2019, as the US’s blocking of appointments has left the body without a quorum of adjudicators needed to hear appeals. Ending the impasse will require both the procedural and substantive concerns of the US to be addressed. For the most part, these reflect long-standing and systemic issues that not only have been voiced by previous US administrations but are shared by many other WTO members (even if they do not approve of the Trump administration’s tactics). The crisis with the dispute settlement function of the WTO is closely linked to the breakdown in its negotiation function. While the global trade landscape has changed significantly over the past 25 years, WTO rules have not kept pace. Modernizing the WTO will necessitate the development of a new set of rules for dealing with digital trade and e-commerce. WTO members will also have to deal more effectively with China’s trade policies and practices, including how t