Only the US can revitalize respect in the WTO because they destroyed it

As early as 2016, Donald Trump had highlighted the limits of an institution that was out of breath. The criticism was not unfounded, but instead of working to overhaul the organization through new governance and a reform of its modus operandi, the United States preferred to adopt the worst possible policy by paralyz[ed] the WTO's dispute settlement body. The arrival of Joe Biden in the White House had raised hopes of giving new impetus to multilateralism. In vain. Since 2020, the American president has followed in his predecessor's footsteps by making the reindustrialization of the United States his priority. The gigantic green subsidy plan passed this summer, the Inflation Reduction Act, shamelessly flouts WTO rules. The protests of the European Union (EU), voiced in early December by Emmanuel Macron during a trip to Washington, have no chance of making the United States change its course. By encouraging Europeans to follow suit, they are only further undermining an already ailing system. These tensions with the EU come in addition to the rivalry between China and the United States. Two-thirds of the trade between the two countries does not respect WTO rules. When the world's two biggest powers break away from this framework, it is difficult to ask other countries to continue playing the game. Although the death certificate of the WTO has not yet been written, its centrality in the coordination of world trade is widely questioned. Security and geopolitical issues are now taking precedence over economic interdependence. This is a dangerous slope, which risks leading to the primacy of the law of the strongest, at the worst possible time. The slowdown in global growth, the widening inequalities between the South and the North and the agricultural and environmental challenges cannot be overcome if the logic of every-man-for-himself dominates. It is not just the fate of the WTO, it is the fate of global stability that is at stake.