Canada still needs a functioning WTO
While Canadian minister-of-everything Chrystia Freeland was declaring the era of trade multilateralism dead, one of her government’s foot soldiers was busy helping breathe a little life into it.
Yet at the same time that Ms. Ng was helping nail down those agreements, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland – who is, really, the only voice in this government that matters on economic policy – was publicly declaring that the era of economic multilateralism is over. It’s time to move on.
So which is it? Does Canada still see an institution such as the WTO as relevant, necessary and in its best interests? Or are we moving on from that big multilateral trade tent as a naïve anachronism, and preparing to forge new paths?The supply mess exposed by the pandemic has absolutely made a convincing case for re-drawing the global supply-chain map – it’s clear now that we have put too many of our eggs too few baskets that, when push came to shove, proved self-serving and unreliable.
That mechanism has been effectively shut down since late 2019; the United States – which has major issues with having the WTO tell it how to run its trade policy – has refused to approve appointments of new judges to the WTO’s appellate body when the terms of old judges expired. Significantly, the Geneva Package includes a commitment by all members to restore the dispute settlement system. Less encouraging is that the agreement only pledges to solve the impasse by 2024.
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