30th Anniversary of the Establishment of the World Trade Organization - Safeguarding the Multilateral Trading System and Promoting Common Development and Prosperity (Authoritative Forum)
2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the World Trade Organization. Over the past 30 years, the World Trade Organization has played an important role in promoting global trade development, fostering economic growth, and increasing the participation of developing countries. Currently, multiple challenges such as unilateralism, protectionism, and geopolitical conflicts are intertwined, pushing global trade to a crossroads of deep restructuring. The international community should firmly uphold the multilateral trading system centered on the World Trade Organization and based on rules, promote the construction of an open world economy, and add certainty and stability to global development.
Tu Xinquan (Dean of the China World Trade Organization Research Institute at the University of International Business and Economics)
Gadhija Brown (Special Economic Advisor to the Vice President of South Africa)
Xia Huasheng (Economist at the Vargas Foundation in Brazil)
Joshua Pardet (Chief Economist, Permata Bank, Indonesia)
Ensure rapid growth of trade
Between 1995 and 2023, the total global trade volume increased nearly fivefold, surpassing the growth rate of global gross domestic product during the same period
Xia Huasheng: The World Trade Organization, officially established in 1995, inherited and developed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1948. The World Trade Organization adheres to the basic direction of trade liberalization, providing institutional guarantees for the rapid growth of international trade with a larger number of members, a more comprehensive system of rules, and a stronger dispute resolution mechanism. Between 1995 and 2023, the total global trade volume increased nearly fivefold, surpassing the growth rate of global gross domestic product during the same period. 166 members have established close and mutually beneficial economic ties through trade, laying a solid foundation for world peace and development.
Gadhija Brown: The World Trade Organization is the cornerstone of economic globalization and trade liberalization. It established a rules based multilateral trading system, providing legal protection for the development of international trade by establishing unified trade rules and dispute resolution mechanisms. The World Trade Organization has always regarded dispute resolution as one of its core functions, and has accepted over 600 trade disputes among its members, effectively preventing the escalation of trade conflicts and risk spillover among members, and maintaining the stability and predictability of the international trade environment.
Joshua Pardet: One of the purposes of the World Trade Organization is to strive to ensure that the share of developing countries, especially the least developed countries, in international trade growth is commensurate with their economic needs. Trade liberalization has played a positive role in promoting income growth for people in low - and middle-income countries and advancing global poverty reduction efforts. From 1995 to 2022, the share of low - and middle-income countries in global exports increased from 17% to 32%, and the proportion of people living in extreme poverty significantly decreased from 40% to 10%.
Tu Xinquan: China's development is the best footnote to the superiority of the multilateral trading system. In 2001, after 15 years of arduous negotiations, China officially became a member of the World Trade Organization. China is a beneficiary of the World Trade Organization, adhering to the positioning and policy of integrating into the world, fully aligning with international rules and practices, and expanding opening-up, fully utilizing the opportunities brought by the multilateral trading system, and achieving remarkable development achievements. China is also an active participant and contributor to the multilateral trading system, not only contributing to world economic growth through its own development, but also fully and deeply participating in the reform of the World Trade Organization, supporting the WTO to play a role as a global trade stabilizer, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of developing members, and making positive contributions to global economic recovery and inclusive growth.
China has made significant contributions
Actively promote the negotiation and establishment of new WTO rules, and facilitate the updating of rules in the multilateral trading system
Xia Huasheng: China has always been a staunch defender of the multilateral trading system and has made significant contributions to the improvement and development of the global trading system. As an important engine of global economic growth, China's annual average contribution to world economic growth has remained stable at around 30% for a long time. China's deep integration into the global supply chain system effectively drives the coordinated development of other economies. As the world's largest manufacturing country and an important importer of raw materials and intermediate goods, China actively promotes the stable operation of global industrial and supply chains. China is also making continuous efforts in trade facilitation, improving the business environment, upgrading free trade agreements, and promoting the formation of an open and cooperative international economic order.
Tu Xinquan: China actively promotes the negotiation and establishment of new rules in the World Trade Organization, and promotes the updating of rules in the multilateral trading system. China has fully participated in the negotiations of the Doha Round and made positive contributions to building consensus and reaching agreements on expanding the scope of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the Information Technology Agreement. China is based on the forefront trend of trade development, promoting the WTO's rule making on new issues through multiple channels such as multilateral, multilateral, and bilateral, leading negotiations on investment facilitation, promoting negotiations on e-commerce, domestic regulation of service trade, and small and medium-sized enterprises, and striving to modernize the rules of the multilateral trading system. China is also committed to uniting other developing countries, enhancing the cohesion of developing members in the formulation of WTO rules, and defending the WTO's purpose of promoting development through trade.
Joshua Pardet: Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization, while seeking more balanced domestic development, it has actively promoted economic globalization and trade liberalization. China is the initiator and participant of multilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. By promoting high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", China promotes regional connectivity and improves the quality and level of trade and investment cooperation.
Gadhija Brown: China earnestly fulfills its WTO accession commitments and WTO membership obligations, actively responds to the concerns of trading partners, continuously improves market access and expands opening up to the outside world, actively participates in WTO reform and negotiation processes, and contributes to global trade liberalization. At a time when the multilateral trading system is facing challenges, China recently announced that it will not seek new special and differential treatment in current and future negotiations at the World Trade Organization. This is not only a support for the World Trade Organization, but also for multilateralism, which is conducive to boosting confidence in the multilateral trading system and accelerating the reform process of the World Trade Organization.
Firmly practicing multilateralism
By expanding and gradually improving the multi-party temporary appeal arbitration arrangement, we aim to create an alternative multilateral dispute resolution mechanism
Gadhija Brown: According to the latest Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report released by the World Trade Organization Secretariat, the United States' "reciprocal tariffs" and expanding trade policy uncertainty have had a negative impact on global trade in goods. Against the backdrop of escalating geopolitical tensions and climate issues, the rise of unilateralism and protectionism seriously disrupts the global industrial and supply chains, which is the main challenge facing the current multilateral trading system. Trade liberalization is an inevitable requirement for the development of the world economy. Unilateralism and protectionism hinder trade liberalization, have a negative impact on global economic recovery, may lead to further widening of the global wealth gap, and bring unstable factors to world peace and development. We should jointly uphold and strengthen the multilateral trading system centered on the World Trade Organization and based on rules, and promote global trade to return to the track of multilateralism.
Tu Xinquan: The best way to deal with unilateralism is for WTO members to firmly support multilateralism. The dispute settlement mechanism is one of the core pillars of the World Trade Organization and plays a crucial role in maintaining the multilateral trading system. Since December 11, 2019, the WTO Appellate Body has been paralyzed, fundamentally weakening the authority of the WTO. The World Trade Organization should continue to play its role as a platform for consultation, negotiation, and dispute resolution, by expanding and gradually improving the multi-party temporary appeal arbitration arrangement, and building it into an alternative multilateral dispute resolution mechanism. It should adhere to resolving trade disputes between members through consultation and rules, ensuring that global trade still operates under the premise of the World Trade Organization as the core and rules based.
The new forms and issues of world trade are constantly emerging, and the traditional multilateral trade rules system mainly focuses on goods trade and service trade, with limited adaptability. In cases where it is difficult for all members to reach a complete consensus, some members should be encouraged to take the lead within the WTO framework, form new rules through the multilateral model, and then engage in multilateralism at an appropriate time.
Joshua Pardet: Unilateralism and protectionism weaken trust in multilateralism, and political will is crucial for maintaining trade transparency and predictability. WTO members must reaffirm their commitment to WTO principles, restart the negotiation process on thorny issues such as subsidy rules, and avoid adopting distorted trade policies outside the WTO. Whether we can further cooperate with major members such as China, ensure meaningful participation of developing members, and reach consensus on special and differential treatment is the key to WTO reform.
Reform and improve the World Trade Organization
The direction for necessary reforms is not to weaken the World Trade Organization, but to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness
Tu Xinquan: China's support for the World Trade Organization has always been consistent, and its stance on WTO reform is also clear, that is, to first uphold the basic principles and rules of the WTO, maintain the survival and development of the WTO, and resolutely oppose unilateralism and protectionism. Only by curbing the spread of unilateralism and protectionism, strengthening the seriousness and binding force of WTO rules, can we talk about how to improve and reform the WTO in the future. Necessary reforms should be carried out to address the shortcomings in the WTO system, but the direction of reform is not to weaken the WTO, but to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness.
Xia Huasheng: China is the most stable factor in the current global economic governance system and a key factor in maintaining the normal operation of global industrial and supply chains. Against the backdrop of challenges to multilateralism and downward pressure on global trade, China has injected confidence and momentum into global trade development by continuously expanding high-level opening-up. China continues to promote green and low-carbon transformation, build a modern industrial system based on clean energy and green manufacturing, and actively share relevant technologies and products. These practical actions are the strongest support for the multilateral trading system.
Gadhija Brown: China emphasized in its position paper on WTO reform that WTO reform should uphold the core values of the multilateral trading system, such as non discrimination and openness, safeguard the development interests of developing members, and follow the decision-making mechanism of consensus through consultation. I think these principles are crucial. We should support inclusive development of the multilateral trading system, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, and promote the World Trade Organization to play a greater role in improving global economic governance.