‘Unmaking’ of International Trade Law?: A Crisis of the Rule-Based International Trading System

Several decades since the end of World War II have shown unprecedented expansion of international trade and economic growth. This historic economic success is owed, in large part, to the stability of international trade under the rule-based international trading system of the GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The long period of growth and economic prosperity may draw to an end as the major traders, such as the United States, China, and the European Union, have systematically undermined the rules of international trade, which is imperative to maintaining a stable international trading system. As a result, some of its core provisions, such as those stipulating the prohibition of unilateral trade measures, the regulation of trade-related subsidies, and the multilateral trading dispute settlement mechanism, may no longer be functional. The cost of undermining the multilateral trade disciplines is a risk of return to the power-based international trading system that existed before the establishment of the GATT and the WTO, which acerbated the Great Depression of the 1930s and provided a cause for the most destructive and tragic world war in history. This article examines the measures of the major traders that critically undermine the core provisions of international trade law and assesses their implications for the rule-based international trading system.