WTO forum opens with urgent calls for global trade reform: Here’s why

The World Trade Organization on Tuesday encouraged its participants to overhaul international commerce or risk coming perilously close to breaking apart in ways that could contract the economy and affect vulnerable countries.

According to an annual report, the Geneva-based global trade body said established frameworks have lagged behind evolving trends in economic power, the rise of industrial policy, and rising political tensions among major powers.

The warning comes after the WTO’s 166 members reached an impasse on a reform package at a ministerial meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon in March before resuming talks in Geneva.

The WTO has struggled over reforms in the consensus-based organization as member economies are moving in different directions and they have clashing priorities.

In this connection, WTO Chief Economist Rob Staiger said that the trading system was at a decisive turning point where immediate action is required amid economic decentralization, changes in the nature of trade fueled by technological integration, international production networks and escalating geopolitical tensions.

Staiger further clarified that the findings come as countries are pursuing regional and bilateral trade arrangements in the wake of the rising trade tensions and sweeping US tariffs.

Without a strong framework, such arrangements risk diverting trade toward nations with shared values rather than lowest-cost manufacturers and promote cooperation within a specific geographic bloc, ultimately leading to the exclusion of outsiders.

Furthermore, the WTO said global trade instability has reached unmapped territory in recent years as governments increasingly deploy tariffs, export controls and industrial policies.