An Analysis of WTO Reform Process

World Trade Organization reform has been discussed since its establishment. Issues such as the reform of special and differential treatment and also the reform of the consensus decision-making system have been among the most important cases of attention. The constant conflict between developed and developing countries, which led to the collapse of the Doha Round negotiations and the failure of the reforms debate in WTO, can be attributed to the different perspectives of these two country groups on the main purpose of WTO. Developed countries believe that the final aim of WTO is to facilitate free trade between countries, they also demand that WTO should expand free trade to e- commerce and intellectual property. On the other hand, developing countries believe the final goal of the WTO is to accelerate the development of all countries. They also expect WTO to announce the approval of an overall result of the Doha Development Round negotiations as a precondition for new negotiations of WTO reform .In addition, after the U.S crisis in WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), the reform of DSB has become one of the most challenging pillars of the WTO reform process.Making consensus in the decisions has faced a deadlock in the decision-making mechanism of WTO. For instance, some of the recent issues in international trade, such as e-commerce have created different conditions in WTO in comparison to time WTO was established. Furthermore, in recent years some events like the Coronavirus pandemic and changing of the president of the United States, have made WTO reform inevitable.