What future for the global trading system amid trade, technological and geopolitical confrontations?

Anabel Gonzalez - Independent consultant on Trade and Investment. With trade conflicts, new technologies and geopolitical competition reshaping the global economy, the trade and investment policy landscape is rapidly changing. While different scenarios are playing out, managed trade is gaining traction, rules are increasingly fragmented in competing spheres of influence and global trade governance is weakening. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is under strain and the business environment is more uncertain, volatile and increasingly power-driven than before. 

Amid these conditions, a renewed global trading system is critical to support growth, technological progress and world stability. The task at hand is difficult, not least because it takes stage against the backdrop of great power rivalry and systemic competition between the US and China (1) . In moving towards WTO reform, countries face the challenge of reconciling three critical objectives; preserving the rules-based nature of the system; ensuring all major economies remain part of it; and improving the way it works. WTO Members are presenting proposals to unpack the issues.

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The views expressed here are the author’s, and may not necessarily represent the views of the Institute for International Trade.