The publication provides historical and up-to-date insights into how reform can be transformational and progressive in nature and broadens the debate by focusing not only on new pathways for decision-making but also on important issues such as the environment and the SDGs. Finally, it highlights the importance of keeping the multilateral trading system alive for the benefit of all states, particularly for small states, Least Developed Countries and sub-Saharan African countries. WTO Reform: Reshaping Global Trade Governance for 21st Century Challenges, is designed to serve as a valuable resource for government officials, trade negotiators, journalists, academics and researchers who are attempting to sort through the complexities of the organisation and the role they can play in supporting a fairer, more inclusive WTO and multilateral trading system.

The review of the dispute settlement system of the WTO was written into the results of the Uruguay Round establishing the organization. The planned review after four years failed to reach a conclusion and the review process was extended several times, to be finally taken up as a separate part of the Doha Round.

The History and Future of the World Trade Organization is a comprehensive account of the economic, political and legal issues surrounding the creation of the WTO and its evolution. Fully illustrated with colour and black-and-white photos dating back to the early days of trade negotiations, the publication reviews the WTO's achievements as well as the challenges faced by the organisation, and identifies the key questions that WTO members need to address in the future. The book describes the intellectual roots of the trading system, membership of the WTO and the growth of the Geneva trade community, trade negotiations and the development of coalitions among the membership, and the WTO's relations with other international organisations and civil society. Also covered are the organisation's robust dispute settlement rules, the launch and evolution of the Doha Round, the rise of regional trade agreements, and the leadership and management of the WTO.

This is the first book that critically examines the reform of the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in light of the current crisis resulting from the U.S. blocking of the appointment of its members. The reform of the AB is critical, as the appointment crisis could lead to the demise of “the jewel in the crown,” which may even cause the dismantling of the WTO as a whole. This book covers various aspects of the crisis and its reform. Specifically, as the crisis cannot be fully understood without reviewing the role of the AB from the broader perspectives of the other functions of the WTO, the book examines the reform of the AB from the broader perspectives of the WTO governance. Additional focus is on the reform of the AB in relation to its specific functions. Available options are provided to address the AB crisis, as well as discussion of wider implications beyond the WTO. Contributed by world-renowned academics, experts, and practitioners in the field of international economic law, this volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the AB crisis and its solutions.

Two high-level commissions—the Sutherland report in 2004, and the Warwick Commission report in 2007—addressed the future of the World Trade Organization and made proposals for incremental reform. This book goes further; it explains why institutional reform of the WTO is needed at this critical juncture in world history and provides innovative, practical proposals for modernizing the WTO to enable it to respond to the challenges of the twenty-first century. Contributors focus on five critical areas: transparency, decision- and rule-making procedures, internal management structures, participation by non-governmental organizations and civil society, and relationships with regional trade agreements. Co-published with the International Development Research Centre and the Centre for International Governance Innovation

This book discusses the most recent developments in the WTO regime. Issues such as E-commerce, security exception clause, China's compliance with the WTO obligations, sustainability development, IP protection in FTZs, trade controls and etc., are at the forefront of WTO studies. These issues strongly influence people's understanding of the current role of WTO and provides possible way to revitalize the function of WTO. Meanwhile, as the world's second largest economy, the world's largest trading nation and the holder of the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, China is apparently a powerful figure in leading these issues. Therefore, this book explores extensively these issues from a Chinese perspective to see what China could do to reboost the world trade.

This book is about how the WTO functions as a public organization. It analyzes and evaluates the WTO from a public administration perspective which is absent from the current debate on WTO reforms dominated by the traditional view that only nation states matter, not international organizations.