WTO, IMF, World Bank seek ‘urgent’ international trade reforms

NEW YORK: The World Trade Organisation (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank issued an emergency call to reform the multilateral trading system as the United States retreats from prior agreements.

“The urgent challenge today is to harness the unique strength of the WTO,” said the bodies in a joint report on Sunday. “The slow pace of reforms since the early 2000s, fundamental changes in a more interconnected modern economy, and the risk of trade policy reversals call for urgency to reinvigorate trade policy reforms.”

US President Donald Trump has harshly criticised globalism in general and questioned America’s participation in multilateral institutions like the WTO during the United Nations General Assembly meeting, here.

Meanwhile, fallout from the escalating US-China trade conflict led the WTO to cut its trade growth forecast last week, and WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo warned that a full-blown trade war “would knock around 17 per cent off global trade growth, and 1.9 per cent off gross domestic product growth.”

The joint paper by the Washington-based groups outlined specific initiatives aimed at modernising WTO rules, including a focus on increased market access for e-commerce, more flexible negotiating structures and better transparency of government trade policies.

The recommendations echo many goals outlined in various WTO reform proposals offered this month by the European Union and Canada.

The WTO, IMF and World Bank jointly called for new rules to address the expanding role of ecommerce along with investment and services trade in the 21st century.

“The opportunities provided by information technology and other fundamental changes in the global economy are yet to be reflected in modern areas of trade policy,” said the report.

The three institutions also advocated the more so-called use of plurilateral talks to help unblock trade negotiations.

Plurilateral accords are deals negotiated among a group of likeminded members that are limited to certain sectors of goods or services. Such agreements are typically easier and faster to negotiate than multilateral accords, which require a consensus among the WTO’s 164 members.