PRAGMATISM OVER
PURISM IMAGINING A
WTO 2.0 FOR OUR
By
Mark Linscott
MODERN REALITY
In a global trade landscape dominated by unilateral tariffs, retaliatory tariffs, and a rush to reciprocal tariff deals, it is hard to argue that the World Trade Organization( WTO) plays any significant role other than as an outside observer.
Even in trade that does not directly involve the United States, countries devote much more political capital, time, and resources to bilateral and regional negotiations among themselves, especially in the form of free trade agreements( FTAs), than they do in Geneva sitting through WTO meetings. It has been a decade plus since WTO members have negotiated on tariffs.
I start by acknowledging that I offer a patently radical idea on how the WTO could recover its mojo, essentially by turning its back on the foundation stone of the multilateral trading system that has been in place since 1947. To jump right to the punchline, I suggest a thought experiment in which tariffs among countries, or at least the largest ones( counting the European Union as one), are no longer bound at“ most-favored nation( MFN)” or non-discriminatory levels, sector-by-sector, product-by-product, and instead are free to float through unilateral action or a network of bilateral or regional, reciprocal trade agreements.
28 Bold ideas to power progress