The Crisis in World Trade Law: How the Dust Is Settling

Abstract

Abstract: Reform and extension of world trade law have stalled because of the WTO's consensus rule. The sense of crisis has been exacerbated by the US refusal to approve new members to the WTO Appellate Body, preventing settlement of disputes arising from current world trade law, and by the United States dropping out of the most promising plurilateral approach to extending world trade law. By unilaterally increasing tariffs, the Trump administration further indicated the US disregard for world trade law. After January 2021, President Biden quickly made clear that he would not reverse the US position on the WTO, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), or recent tariff increases. Other countries' responses to the blow to enforcing and extending world trade law were hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic that curtailed face-to-face meetings in 2020 and 2021, but the dust began clearing in 2023. In June 2023, the UK became the first new member of the CPTPP; China and Taiwan are next in the queue for accession. In 2023, Japan became the 53rd signatory of the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), whose signatories recognize binding arbitration decisions on WTO rulings; the United States rejects the MPIA. The article ends by drawing conclusions about the future of the world trade system and the US response to initiatives supported by its major allies and other major trading nations.