Article: Plurilateral Agreements and the Multilateral Trade System: Lessons from the Past and Present for the Future

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (WTO) remains the leading international institution for global trade. As a member-driven organization, the WTO adopts decisions mainly by consensus. Whilst this promotes equality in decision-making between Members, it raises a challenge in a situation where Members are unable to achieve consensus required to adopt a decision. As a result, there is growing debate on whether WTO Members should adopt plurilateral agreements to advance their diverse interests in the system. This paper contributes to this argument by highlighting plurilateral agreements are part of the WTO system and have been used to strengthen the WTO, rather than weaken it and should be used in this manner. This paper highlights that plurilateral agreements are common concepts in the WTO and have been used to strengthen the multilateral trade system. This paper provides an overview of the use of plurilateral agreements during the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) era and under the WTO. It argues that plurilateral agreements have strengthened the trading system by operating as legally binding instruments for WTO plus commitments, a solution to multilateral inaction and an avenue for autonomy within the WTO. It concludes by emphasizing that discussions on the trade system’s reform should consider plurilateral agreements as an avenue to strengthen the multilateral trade system rather than as an alternative to or an escape route from it.