EU Submission On WTO Reform

The following communication, dated 19 January 2026, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of the European Union.

1 INTRODUCTION

The WTO is at a critical and, in fact, an existential juncture. Without a strong political commitment by the Membership to a process of deep and comprehensive reform, the organization will slide into irrelevance, and with that the rules-based global trading system will further erode. We welcome the discussions that took place in preparation for MC14 and the active engagement of Members in this urgent task. The EU thanks Ambassador Petter Ølberg for his tireless efforts and dedication as Facilitator on WTO Reform. The EU welcomes his valuable report (JOB/GC/483) as a helpful starting point for further work and welcomes the opportunity to contribute to further shaping the draft work plan post-MC14.

The present paper sets out the EU’s vision for a substantially transformed WTO and calls for a reform centred on three pillars: predictability, fairness and flexibility. It builds on and complements the Facilitator’s report.

Like many Members, the EU is approaching MC14 as a “Reform Ministerial” and a stepping stone towards a fundamental reform that should take place between MC14 and MC15. The Annex contains the EU proposal for a ministerial decision and concrete suggestions for a work plan for post-MC14 work on reform.

2 TOWARDS A FUNDAMENTALLY REFORMED WTO

Diagnosis

The crisis in the WTO reflects broader shifts in the global trade landscape which has changed fundamentally since the system was set up in 1995. During the past 30 years, we have witnessed the substantial economic development of key G20 players, and of many developing countries resulting in the growth of their relative weight in global trade and their increased integration into global value chains. At the WTO’s creation, the balance of concessions was not meant to be static, but to evolve through a successive process of negotiating rounds to further liberalise tariffs and trade, safeguard a global level playing field and modernise the WTO rulebook.

These further rounds, however, did not materialise, cementing the balance struck in 1995 and preventing the Organization to properly reflect the nature of contemporary global trade. The system was not designed to address a range of challenges that have become central to international trade, such as the rise of digital trade and data-driven business models, as well as the increasing use of climate-related measures with significant trade implications. This growing mismatch between the current WTO rulebook and today’s trade environment has contributed to the Organization’s crisis. This crisis is further exacerbated by geopolitical tensions, the weaponisation of trade and tariff measures.

Another root cause for the crisis is the increasingly impactful and far-reaching State interventions leading to overcapacities and systemic imbalances, with negative spillovers on other Members. The outdated WTO rules cannot tackle these negative externalities. This is a well-known priority of the EU already included in our previous Communication on WTO reform in 2023 as a key global trade policy challenge (WT/GC/W/864).

The increasing number of non compliant autonomous measures by Members demonstrates that due to the outdated rulebook these imbalances cannot be sufficiently addressed within the current parameters of the system.

A further longstanding weakness is the WTO’s governance that is ill equipped to deal with the substantially enlarged and diverse Membership resulting in deadlock and an inability to arrive at decisions. As a result, only two multilateral agreements have been concluded over the past 30 years.

The status quo is not an available option for the WTO as it will merely contribute to a continuous downhill trajectory. The WTO and its Membership therefore urgently need to deliver on a deep and comprehensive reform.

Read the full communication as it was originally published by the World Trade Organization here: