The return of trade barriers and economic sanctions has diminished the spirit of GATT. In this context, discuss the factors contributing to the decline of WTO in recent times.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 GATT’s spirit = one rule for everyone (MFN: advantage to one extends to all) → tariffs ~40% (1947) to under 5% (1993) → spine: decline begins where the rule-writers step outside their own rules
Route 2 accept the premise → barriers + sanctions are the symptom → the disease is defection by the system’s own architects → the spirit held only while the strong consented to it
barriers return as politics → US–China trade war (2018), tariffs on hundreds of billions → sanctions (EU on Russia) → trade becomes an arm of foreign policy → Rodrik: economic nationalism as backlash, domestic pressure to shield industry → heavier blow is judicial: the binding court was the WTO’s one advance over GATT → AB appointments blocked, funding cut (Dec 2019) → one member where three are needed → Ravi Kanth: obstruction defends American unilateralism → Keohane: legitimacy and compliance fall with enforcement → members exit → CPTPP, RCEP → Stiglitz: fragmentation, rule-setting eroded → consensus of 166 blocks new rules (Chinese subsidies, developing-country status) → Strange: e-commerce, digital services, environment unaddressed → irrelevance
collapse overstates it → Gilpin: the rules-based regime still lends predictability and discourages trade wars → machinery stands, political will has thinned
Route 1 what has thinned is the willingness of the strongest to be bound — that willingness was the spirit of GATT → revival = restore the appellate function + loosen strict consensus
Route 2 reform rather than burial → an equitable trading order still needs a rule-maker → the test is whether the strongest again accept being bound
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
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How this is taught
The same flow snapshot, built for every head of the syllabus, with the answer written in class.
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