World Trade Organization: Quo vadis?

Abstract

During last couple of years, the academic community, national civil servants in charge of trade policies, and employees of international economic organizations have intensively discussed reforming the World Trade Organization. All participants of the debate tend to agree that the system of multilateral trade regulation in its present form does not match expectations and requirements. There is less unanimity regarding the reasons that have resulted in the poor performance of the institution under review. As for possible ways to solve the problem, existing opinions differ dramatically. Both expert views and official proposals of WTO members (Canada, EU, Japan, China and some others) deal with prospects for the Doha round, modalities of future agreements, decision-making process, and a range of other questions waiting for uneasy answers.