Since the founding of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the high heterogeneity among its members and the difficulty of coordinating those members’ interests, coupled with the guiding principle of consensus decision-making, have repeatedly led WTO negotiations into deadlocks. Recently, the US, increasingly dissatisfied with the distribution of interests in the current international economic system, has been forcing its major trading partners to make concessions more frequently, using unilateral trade policies intended to reshape the global trade order. Viewed from the contents of the reform proposals submitted by the WTO members so far, the differences between the parties are too obvious to reach consensus. The EU and Canada tried to respond to the US's claims for WTO reform in their proposals as much as possible, such as the US’s disasatisification with the appallete body and the eligibility of developing members for S&DT. Meanwhile, they did not even put forward a plan on how to fulfill the Doha Round commitments, nor how to enhance the voice of developing countries and safeguard their development demands. The US proposal aimed to deprive a group of specific developing members of Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT), and substantially enhance the equality of rights and obligations in WTO system to contain the competitive advantage which S&DT brings to developing members.
The US's reform claims, especially the unilateral power feature of its approach of pushing reform，have made the confrontation in the WTO system much more intense. Thus, WTO reform is becoming even more complicated due to increased competition among great powers. Expanding regionalism is also likely to turn into a tool for geopolitical competition,posing a greater threat to the institutional basis of the multilateral trading system. China should support the multilateral trading system and guide reforms toward justice, inclusiveness, and openness. Furthermore, as it accelerates the pace of its own reform and opening up, China should narrow its divergence of rules with western countries within reasonable scope, ensure that due attention is given to the appeals of developing countries,and defend the goals and principles of the WTO.
