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| WTO Reform: Challenges, Progress and Prospects |
| Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences |
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Abstract Since its foundation, the high heterogeneity among its membership, the difficulty in coordinating members’ interests, coupled with the principle of consensus decisionmaking, WTO negotiations repeatedly come to an impasse and substantive progress is difficult to achieve in its reform. WTO negotiations repeatedly come to an impasse and substantive progress is difficult to achieve in its reform. Recently, the US, becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the interest distribution in the current international economic system, tries to reform the WTO with countries sharing similar ideals and beliefs, with the aim to pressure China into changing its way of economic growth. WTO reform is becoming more complicated since it involves competition of rules among the great powers. The expanding regionalism may also be turned into tools for geopolitical competition, thus posing an even greater threat to the institutional basis of the multilateral trading system. China should resolutely defend the multilateral trading system and propel the reform toward fairness, inclusiveness, and openness. While accelerating the pace of reform and opening up, China should narrow the divergence of rules with Western countries within reasonable scope, ensure that due attention is given to addressing development appeals of developing countries, and safeguard WTO’s purposes and principles.
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