A piece in the New York Times elaborates the priorities of the world's largest economy with respect to the trade negotiations landscape at the multilateral trading body in the coming years.
The international trading system was largely built by the United States, but the Trump administration argues that its rules have put Americans at a disadvantage, preventing the United States from taking actions to protect its workers while doing little to curb unfair trade practices by China and other nations. The United States wants to change the organization’s rules, efforts that critics say have crippled it and edged it into further irrelevance.
Key highlights of what is in store:
1. Greater emphasis on bilateral trade deals with trading partners by the US. A first one in Africa perhaps (apart from an old trade deal with Morocco)
2. The Appellate Body stand-off to continue - no significant breakthrough
3. Questioning the current levels of tariffs set by WTO members by the US - a recalibration in line with the stand that the self-declaration of developing countries standard must be re-looked
4. Pursuing the questioning of the digital services tax at the WTO and elsewhere
What does this mean for multilateral trade negotiations, the world trade body and future strategies developing countries need to take? Will certainly look at this blogpost in 2022 to see how this played out!
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