International trade discussions are seeing a new dynamism now that the WTO is focused on updating and reforming its rules, said U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai. In a speech to a Washington think tank, Tai said the ministerial conference scheduled for February should “lock in progress on areas where we can agree.”
“MC13 will be the first WTO ‘reform ministerial’ and it is an opportunity for us to come together and deliver,” said Tai, referring to the upcoming ministerial conference in the United Arab Emirates. The WTO ministerial conference in Geneva in June ended nine years of stalemate, she said, and “members have rallied around the call for reform.”
The U.S. agenda for reform includes candid and timely reporting by members of policies that impinge on free trade, new rules to rein in industrial targeting and state-owned enterprises that exercise economic coercion, and making it easier and less expensive for nations to settle trade disputes, said Tai. “And we urgently need to correct WTO panel reports that have asserted that the WTO may second-guess members’ legitimate national security judgements, something none of us ever intended.”