Time to reform faltering WTO: US Senators

Two top American Senators on Thursday called for immediate reform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), alleging that the global trade body has failed to meet its mandate as result of which its credibility and effectiveness is eroding fast.

"With the World Trade Organization Public Forum underway in Geneva, it is time for members to confront and address the problems that are eroding the WTO's credibility and effectiveness. These are problems that, if left unresolved, will endanger the WTO's future relevance," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Ron Wyden said.

In an op-ed, the two powerful Senators said that while the WTO was intended to be a forum for multilateral trade negotiations, it has proven difficult to come to agreements that give a fair shot to all nations, not just wealthier countries that can subsidize their industries.

In addition, some WTO members that have advanced economies are claiming "developing country status" in order to avoid their trade obligations, they alleged.

For years, economic powerhouses, like China, have relied on this self-designation to shirk WTO commitments in critical areas such as agriculture and illegal subsidies. This hinders progress for members that want to expand trade and commerce and undermines the integrity of the WTO itself.

"This is why we support the US proposal to change the way the WTO treats developing countries, which is targeted at strengthening the negotiating function of the organization," they said.

Still, two ongoing projects offer the WTO a chance to get it right, they noted.

Noting that negotiations are underway to curtail the fish subsidies that have long promoted overfishing and unfair competition and to decrease barriers to e-commerce and digitally-supported trade, the two Senators said if concluded, these agreements would demonstrate that the WTO can still serve as the institution it was intended to be.

"While the WTO serves as a forum to settle disputes among its members, we have serious concerns about the degree to which the system is working," they said.

The Senators said that the WTO must improve its ability to monitor member states' trade policies and practices.

Some WTO members, like China, consistently fail to meet their obligations to accurately report the subsidies they provide to domestic industries.

"In other cases, members have failed to disclose measures that affect international trade, such as India's ban on US agricultural products for alleged safety concerns, which the WTO ultimately found to be disguised protectionism, or China's various cybersecurity requirements on information and communication technology," they said.

"This is unacceptable," the Senators said.

A number of countries regularly take advantage of other WTO members that comply with notification and transparency rules while ignoring their own obligations, they said.

The US has advocated for measures that would incentivize the member states to abide by the rules by providing for consequences in cases of noncompliance, such as loss of privileges to chair WTO bodies, they added.