The Future of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Free Trade

This essay explores the future of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its role in international free trade. It discusses the challenges faced by the WTO, including the stalled Doha Development Round, the rise of regional trade agreements (FTAs), and its limited role in addressing global issues like climate change and trade inequalities. The essay emphasizes the need for the WTO to adapt to the changing international economic environment and consider new approaches to trade liberalization and dispute resolution. It also highlights the impact of large developing economies and the need for their effective integration into the global trading system. The essay concludes that the WTO must refresh its strategies to remain relevant and effective in the 21st century.

Running head: THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) AND
THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE
The FUTURE of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the FUTURE of International
Free Trade
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1
THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) AND THE
FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE
Future of World Trade Organisation:
The World Trade Organisation (WTO), an intergovernmental organisation, controls
international trade across the world. After replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT), the organisation has been formed in 1995. This largest economic organisation
deals internationally with trade regulation in intellectual property, goods and services among
participant countries through giving a framework to negotiate trade agreements along with a
disagreement resolution process that can further lead participant countries’ adherence to
WTO agreements (Matsushita, Schoenbaum, Mavroidis & Hahn, 2015). Participant
countries’ representatives have signed these agreements while parliaments of those respective
countries have ratified those agreements. The WTO has various functions among which two
can be described. Firstly, this organisation gives a discussion to negotiate and to set disputes.
Secondly, this organisation oversees the administration, operation and implementation of the
covered agreements. WTO regulations along with its work administration and dispute
settlement strategies have become important in global trade for performing smoothly and for
the management. In 2008, the world has experienced global financial crisis that further has
influenced economies adversely by increasing unemployment through creating pressures for
protecting domestic industries. Hence, the WTO has been recognised to stop the threat related
to trade protectionism. The multilateral trade negotiations, which is, the Doha Development
Round has experienced challenges to liberalise trade and to reform the WTO. This round has
focused on decreasing critical trade barriers in some areas like industrial goods and services
and agriculture. This would support businesses across the world for specialising in the
production of goods and services to obtain comparatively greater economic status and to
enhance their productivity and efficiency (Ruggie, 2017). Moreover, large developing
economies have expanded its economic condition and this has created new challenges for this
organisation. Hence, the way those countries can be incorporated into the international

2
THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) AND THE
FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE
trading system has become one of the important issues for the Doha round and for the
organisation as a whole.
As Doha has remained in a stalemate, the trading powers across world have been
engaged to bypass the WTO by regional trade agreements and by signing multiple bilateral.
The basic role of WTO to liberalise trade has been questioned continuously, as Free Trade
Agreements (FTAs) have been generated (Thorborg et al., 2018). The WTO has played a
limited role to address other trade related global issues like climate change, food security and
global trade inequalities.
Some FTAs can construct a relationship between two trading partners as the
development promoters have increased. Firstly, the U.S and the U.K can use their
unapproachable bargaining power to achieve more concessions from developing countries
rather than the WTO, where the government of those developing countries can obtain
consensus blocks (Barlow, McKee, Basu & Stuckler, 2017). Secondly, those countries have
generated inconsistent and cross cutting rules for governing various markets that can be very
costly for producers of poor countries.
Thus, from those various challenges, it can be said that WTO is required to think in a
new way. The approaches taken twenty years ago are not sufficient for present years. The
Secretariat of WTO requires starting a process, which can refresh the organisation to deal
with the changing environment of international economic.

3
THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) AND THE
FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL FREE TRADE
References:
Barlow, P., McKee, M., Basu, S., & Stuckler, D. (2017). Impact of the North American Free
Trade Agreement on high-fructose corn syrup supply in Canada: a natural experiment
using synthetic control methods. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 189(26),
E881-E887.
Matsushita, M., Schoenbaum, T. J., Mavroidis, P. C., & Hahn, M. (2015). The World Trade
Organization: law, practice, and policy. Oxford University Press.
Ruggie, J. G. (2017). The theory and practice of learning networks: Corporate social
responsibility and the Global Compact. In Learning To Talk (pp. 32-42). Routledge.
Thorborg, K., Reiman, M. P., Weir, A., Kemp, J. L., Serner, A., Mosler, A. B., & Hölmich, P.
(2018). Clinical examination, diagnostic imaging, and testing of athletes with groin
pain: an evidence-based approach to effective management. journal of orthopaedic &
sports physical therapy, 48(4), 239-249.