Currently, the commission that decides global disputes is threatened with collapse. The reason is US actions.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström wants to reform the World Trade Organization. He warned of the collapse of the commission that regulates global disputes, as America refuses to appoint new judges. British newspapers wrote about it Financial times (9/10/2018).

Malmström is concerned that talks with the US regarding a trade dispute settlement body have reached a critical stage. This body decides disputes between its 164 members, its scales refer to subsidies and anti-dumping measures for steel, for example. But America has blocked the judge’s appointment for two years.

In contrast, Americans claim that judges decide the resulting cases only after they are no longer in office or that their decisions take too long.

But critics claim that the US is only using the issue to attack a system that they say undermines American sovereignty. According to them, this body excessively uses the possibility of defining the rules of international trade.

If this body ceases to function, the WTO will not be able to take binding decisions to resolve disputes. The European Union, as well as Canada and Japan, fear that this would be a major blow to the multilateral system. Breakthroughs on this topic have clearly failed. Progress in negotiations between the US and the EU was allegedly achieved in areas such as forced technology transfer or industrial subsidies, which are also at the heart of the US and EU’s general criticism of China.

Commissioner Malmströmová further stated that Trump wants to break global production chains and concentrate production in free trade zones, but mainly in the United States. The commissioner also commented on the new U.S. agreements with Mexico and Canada, saying they “disturb” the way they institutionalize the use of tariffs for national security reasons. The commissioner said that the EU believes that the articles used by the US are illegal and contrary to the WTO. The EU sues the United States over tariffs on European steel exports.

European automakers are concerned about the new deal between the US, Mexico and Canada, as they see the deal as a “localization” of content, meaning potential disruption to the global chain.

Illustration Image: Author – ChuckTBaker – This file comes from: 320 worldbank-logo.jpg:, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32076789