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of 22 countries acknowledged that the
WTO now faces unprecedented chal-
lenges, and called for the world to defend
the rule-based economic order and build a
more open world economy.
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core status in international trade and
the global economy, and has strived
to strengthen cooperation with other
countries through ongoing negotiations
and agreements, such as the China-EU
Investment Agreement, the China-Japan-
South Korea Free Trade Agreement and
the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership.
There is still a divergence of opinions
on matters such as industrial subsidies,
developing-nation status and state-owned
enterprises, among other issues. Reform
of the WTO is bound to be complicated—
but it ultimately needs to be successful.
Without coordination and concerted effort,
any attempt to change the WTO will likely
die on the vine, and the world economy
could regress to the law
of the jungle which pre-
dominated before the
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proliferation of trade wars in the future.
WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo
agrees that a reformed WTO could better
solve the current challenges of world
trade. Thus, the organization is set to
accelerate its restructuring by honing its
rules and improving its governance and
decision-making mechanisms, so as to
more quickly respond to the new realities
of the information age and to the develop-
ment of emerging powers.
Theway out
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WTO would be massive, not to mention
impractical, and reform of the organiza-
tion has widespread support worldwide.
Macron has proposed that the EU, the
U.S., China and Japan, along with other
countries, make efforts to build consensus
on a common reform plan before the G20
Summit in November.
But the question of how to reach agree-
ment on a common reform plan remains.
Both developing and developed countries
naturally wish to pursue their own inter-
ests, and have divergent ideas on what
form any reform should take.
Developed countries have already
strengthened coordination to reach joint
consensus and take the initiative in pursuit
of change. Following the WTO ministerial-
level conference in December 2017, the
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U.S., the EU and Japan issued a declaration
announcing that they would strengthen
cooperation to eliminate unfair trade prac-
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capacity. In May 2018, the three parties
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technology transfer and industrial subsi-
dies, and revealed plans to take internal
action before the end of 2018 with the
aim of starting negotiations shortly there-
after, with all major trading partners to be
included in these negotiations.
Japan and the EU signed a free-trade
agreement on July 17, and the U.S. and the
EU reached an agreement on July 25 to re-
form intellectual property rights policy and
to crack down on forced technology trans-
fers, industrial subsidies and overcapacity,
among other things, leaving little doubt
that China is the main target of the reform
plan of these developed countries.
Communication between the North and
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new minister of international trade, Jim
Carr, invited a dozen trade ministers to
meet in late October to discuss how to
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Norway, Singapore, South Korea and
Switzerland are on the guest list.
Negotiations between developing coun-
tries are also in full swing. During the
BRICS Summit in July, the representatives
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