The WTO and the Uncertain Future of Multilateralism

The World Trade Organization has been a pillar of the global trading system since its inception in 1995, serving an especially important role in the adjudication of trade disputes and, ultimately, helping to subdue protectionism. But the failure of multilateral negotiations to achieve broader and deeper reductions in global trade barriers, while bilateral and regional agreements have flourished, raises important questions about the WTO and its future. Will large agreements that establish new rules in new areas, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, relegate the WTO to insignificance, merely lower its profile, or provide a much-needed jolt by suggesting best practices that will ultimately strengthen the multilateral system?

Additional Resources

• Speaker Biographies
• Washington Trade Report, Volume XXIX, Number 37, September 30, 2013.
• "Saving Multilateralism: Renovating the House of Global Economic Governance for the 21st Century," by Jennifer Hillman, Brussels Forum Paper Series, March 2010.
• "An Emerging International Rule of Law? The WTO Dispute Settlement System's Role in its Evolution," by Jennifer Hillman, Ottawa Law Review, Vol. 42, No. 2, 2010-2011.