The Executive Yuan's Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) organized a WTO International Symposium in Taipei Monday to promote Taiwan's participation and contribution to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The event brought together leading scholars and experts in the field of international trade to discuss important issues including challenges facing the WTO, the national security exception, and the future of digital trade.
Three prominent experts in international economic and trade law addressed the symposium, including Peter Van den Bossche, director of studies at the World Trade Institute and former member of the WTO's Appellate Body; Mark Wu, professor at Harvard Law School; and Dan Ciuriak, former economic advisor at Canada's foreign affairs and international trade department. A number of domestic experts in economics and trade were also invited to speak. In all, the event saw more than 300 participants, including Taiwanese government officials, foreign representatives in Taiwan, and members of the academic and business communities.
Regarding challenges facing the WTO, participants agreed on the importance of the WTO and its past contributions to global trade, as well as the crises afflicting the multilateral trading system. Participants were also in agreement that any reforms to the trade body must include changes to the function and rules of negotiation, requirements for greater monitoring and transparency, and improvements to the dispute resolution system, the OTN said.
As for the use of the WTO national security exception—a provision that allows WTO members to take necessary action to protect essential security interests—symposium attendants recognized that, in the era of geopolitical confrontation, countries will resort increasingly to threatening means to coerce compliance from other countries. And since trade is one of those important means, the invocation or misuse of this exception will likely rise. The methods used could also encompass how corporations run operations, in which case the business community should prepare and establish international response strategies as soon as possible.