WITHthe second trade is in its worst crisis since 1947, free trade is currently threatened by a wave of protectionism. In an interview with the BBC’s news server, Roberto Azevedo of the World Trade Organization (WTO), who is now in Buenos Aires at the G20 summit of the world’s largest economy, announced this.

“I would say that this is the worst crisis not for the WTO, but for the entire multilateral trading system since the GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which predates the WTO and was made in 1947,” Azevedo said. “This is a moment when some of the basic principles of organisation, the principle of cooperation, the principle of non-discrimination are being challenged and questioned, and I think that is very strange,” he added.

Azevedo pointedly pointedly at the trade dispute between the United States and the United States, which will dominate the agenda of the Argentina summit.

The United States and the WTO are now at odds over the Appeals Body, which decides disputes between States and which are the same elements of the organization’s goals. More recently, Washington has blocked the appointment of new WTO judges to rule in trade disputes, threatening the functioning of the WTO. Washington believes that WTO judges abuse their power and make unfair decisions that benefit the United States and several other countries. If the situation does not change soon, WTO activity will be paralyzed in its fifth year.

Azevedo said, however, that the WTO’s WTO members were negotiating “Many B’s” to prevent the appeals body from collapsing and allow it to continue operating. “Of course, it is a big question whether the United States will be part of this plenary. Otherwise, I would say that a level dispute with the United States will be threatened,” Azevedo said.