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"Revitalizing the World Trading System In recent years, the world trading system has been confronted by a range of new and developing challenges: the risk of climate change, the instability of the digital economy, the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and the threat of future pandemics, to name but a few. In this book, veteran trade negotiator, Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff, draws from his years of experience at the World Trade Organization to consider the history of trade, the current trading system and how it should be reformed in the future. Offering a rare insight into the inner workings of the WTO, Wolff is uniquely placed to identify deficiencies in the current system and suggest actionable solutions. This essential guidebook to the WTO equips readers with the tools and knowledge required to tackle to emerging and emergent challenges of a global trading system."--
List of contents
Introduction: saving the world trading system; Part I. Why Trade?: 1. The origins of trade; Part II. The Multilateral Trading System: 2. The founding of the multilateral trading system; 3. Core elements of the world trading system; 4. Twenty values of the multilateral trading system; 5. A brief history of the WTO as told to us by its ministerial conferences; Part III. The Regular Operations of the WTO: 6. A week at the WTO; Part IV. Major Substantive Topics: 7. Dispute settlement at the WTO; 8. Agriculture; 9. Services; 10. E-Commerce; 11. Development at the WTO; Part V. World Trade Governance and Systemic Reform: 12. The problem of governance of the multilateral trading system; 13. The need for WTO reform; 14. WTO 2025: WTO Reform; Part VI. Conclusion: 15. Conclusion - The future of the WTO; Afterword. The art and science of negotiation; Bibliography.
About the author
Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and was co-Acting Director General (2020–21) and Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (2017–21). He is a leader in the field of international trade, with over five decades of experience as a lawyer and trade negotiator. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Friends of Multilateralism Group (FMG).
Summary
Drawing from his experience at the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a veteran trade negotiator, Alan Wm. Wolff explores the history of trade, the current trading system and how the WTO should be reformed to meet and overcome emerging challenges. He addresses how the WTO has tackled contemporary challenges like Covid-19 and the climate crisis.
