Revitalizing the World Trading System

In recent years, the world trading system has been confronted by a range of new and developing challenges: the risk of climate change, the instability of the digital economy, the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and the threat of future pandemics, to name but a few. In this book, veteran trade negotiator, Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff, draws from his years of experience at the World Trade Organization to consider the history of trade, the current trading system and how it should be reformed in the future. Offering a rare insight into the inner workings of the WTO, Wolff is uniquely placed to identify deficiencies in the current system and suggest actionable solutions. This essential guidebook to the WTO equips readers with the tools and knowledge required to tackle to emerging and emergent challenges of a global trading system.

Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and was co-Acting Director General (2020–21) and Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (2017–21). He is a leader in the field of international trade, with over five decades of experience as a lawyer and trade negotiator. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Friends of Multilateralism Group (FMG).