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Jürgen Matthes / Kyungjin Song / Chris Hattingh / Stephen Ezell / Philip Thompson External Publication 28. September 2021 Key Issues for Reforming the World Trade Organization

The members of the Global Trade & Innovation Policy Alliance (GTIPA), a network of over 40 think tanks in 26 nations, have come together to articulate a positive vision that trade, globalization, and innovation—if conducted on private enterprise-led, market-based, rules governed terms—can maximize welfare for the world’s citizens (GTIPA, 2017).

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External Publication
Key Issues for Reforming the World Trade Organization
Jürgen Matthes / Kyungjin Song / Chris Hattingh / Stephen Ezell / Philip Thompson External Publication 28. September 2021

Key Issues for Reforming the World Trade Organization

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

The members of the Global Trade & Innovation Policy Alliance (GTIPA), a network of over 40 think tanks in 26 nations, have come together to articulate a positive vision that trade, globalization, and innovation—if conducted on private enterprise-led, market-based, rules governed terms—can maximize welfare for the world’s citizens (GTIPA, 2017).

The members of the GTIPA believe the World Trade Organization (WTO) can play a critical role as a forum for the establishment of rules that enable global trade to occur in a free, fair, and market-oriented manner in accordance with the foundational principles of national treatment, nondiscrimination, transparency, and reciprocity and serves as a forum for the (ideally) impartial, rules-based, and timely adjudication of trade disputes among member nations. A well-functioning WTO is indispensable to a well-functioning international economy. Unfortunately, the WTO is an increasingly constrained organization: It has failed to deliver any new significant trade-liberalizing agreements since the original Information Technology Agreement (ITA) in 1996, progress on the Doha Round remains interminably stalled, and the Appellate Body (AB) system appears broken. Perhaps most worryingly, some nations, particularly China, have elected to embrace economic and trade strategies and policies that are fundamentally antithetical and inconsonant with their WTO commitments, with the WTO proving powerless to effectively intercede. This monograph— authored by a subset of GTIPA members—explores the leading challenges facing the WTO and offers a number of policy recommendations for how to address them

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External Publication
Key Issues for Reforming the World Trade Organization

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

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A new opportunity to tackle the global distortions of China’s state capitalism
Jürgen Matthes / Samina Sultan IW-Kurzbericht No. 91 6. December 2023

Reforming the WTO’s subsidy rules

The African Group proposes to reform the WTO’s subsidy rules for industrial goods. Even if this demand for more policy space entails some problems, the EU should view this as an opportunity.

IW

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Thomas Obst in Instiute of International Relations External Publication 17. November 2023

Deindustrialization in Europe – Time for a new Economic Model?

Since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic in 2020, when the world faced a historic health crisis, countries have faced several challenges.

IW

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