Flexible Multilateralism is the New Mantra in WTO Reform

[ABS News Service/08.07.2026]

The United States and the European Union, among other industrialized countries, are insisting that World Trade Organization reform discussions be confined to written submissions made by members, to the exclusion of oral interventions by members – a stance that seems to impose new burdens on developing and least-developed countries, given their resource and capacity constraints, said people familiar with the developments.

At an informal transparency meeting of the Heads of Delegations held yesterday, the two dominant members, backed by the Friends of the System led by Switzerland, appear to be setting new benchmarks in the long-stalled WTO reform negotiations, sources said.

In line with this newfound emphasis on written proposals alone, Switzerland has now circulated its “non-paper on Delivering through Flexible Multilateralism – A Contribution to the WTO Reform,” alongside the Australian paper on plurilateral initiatives and the Argentinian proposal on advancing plurilateral negotiations.

The United States and EU are yet to float any formal proposals after the failed WTO’s 14th ministerial conference in Yaounde, Cameroon, in late March this year.

Privately, several developing countries have voiced suspicion and grave doubt that the WTO’s Secretariat appears to be lending a helpful hand to these dominant industrialized countries in preparing the proposals, said an Asian trade envoy who asked not to be quoted.

During their respective interventions, many developing countries and their coalitions – such as the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific group and the African Group – raised specific concerns about issues including lack of legitimacy, the need for ownership and process-related issues, said people familiar with the developments.

Several developing countries, including the ACP coalition, highlighted the capacity constraints of small members and the challenges posed by parallel meetings, said participants who asked not to be quoted.

In an attempt to steer toward the proposal of flexible decision-making – based on the Swiss non-paper – and to legitimize plurilateral negotiations anchored on the Argentine and Australian proposals, Korea underscored the need to focus only on these two tracks, said people familiar with the discussions.

Also, for several Cairns Group farm-exporting countries and other developing nations in Asia, including Brazil, agricultural subsidies need to be an integral component of level-playing-field issues – issues that are primarily aimed at industrial subsidies provided by China to its state-owned enterprises, a construct that originated from US-Japan-EU negotiations, said people familiar with the discussions.

China, however, appears to be a strong supporter of flexible decision-making while opposing level-playing-field issues, said people familiar with the developments.