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ARTICLE · 02 DECEMBER 2024

Conciliation And Mediation: The Way Forward For The WTO?

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
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Over the course of his first term in office, President Trump made no secret of his skepticism towards the World Trade Organization (WTO).

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Rambod Behboodi
Rambod Behboodi
Emma Makin
Emma Makin
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Over the course of his first term in office, President Trump made no secret of his skepticism towards the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2018, he threatened to withdraw the United States from the WTO if it did not "shape up". During a White House press briefing in September of 2020, he stated that "the WTO, as far as I'm concerned, was created to suck money and jobs out of the United States, to the benefit of China and other countries" and that the WTO has been "not good for the United States".

Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative in President Trump's first administration, echoed this sentiment. In response to the WTO Panel Report on United States-Tariff Measures on Certain Goods from China (DS543), Lighthizer asserted that "the WTO is completely inadequate to stop China's harmful technology practices". Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he expressed concern about the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism and the difficulties in addressing distortions

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