THE

MULTILATERAL
TRADE SYSTEM  
What Role for the World Trade
Organization? 
 From 1947, the Multilateral Trading System (MTS), based
on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
was the engine for stability, unprecedented economic
growth, welfare and prosperity in the post-war global
order.
 These objectives were sustained with the coming into
force of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in 1995, as
the successor to the GATT.
 Despite its manifest success, the WTO is widely regarded
as suffering from difficulty since the failure of the Doha
Development Round of Negotiations in 2001.
Roles of World Trade Organization
 provide public goods that are valued primarily to
economic efficiency
 produce universality of rules to protect the weak
and rules about nondiscrimination
 establish new trade rules in the international
political economy
 provide a forum for the expression of fundamental
differences in national cultures, values, and
economic systems