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We are witnessing currently calls for accelerating the initiatives aiming at reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO). In fact, these calls have not only emerged in the last decades but since the establishment of the organization as plenty of member states were not satisfied with the overall final outcome and saw the WTO as a threat to their domestic industries given the fact that the WTO had the objective of advocating for trade liberalization. Thus, in a way the organization for many states mainly the poor ones seemed like an advocate of the new international liberal order that is dominated by the West and where the organization shall have the purpose of protecting the interests of the north at the expense of the south through the different legal provisions that would establish throughout the years. This got worse with the fact that developing and Least Developing Countries (LDCs) had to amend their domestic legal systems in order to comply with the new international trade regulations that were created gradually for the purpose of facilitating trade between countries and removing trade barriers. As such, in a way the claims that were made by developing countries and LDCs were legitimate in the eyes of these nations as they could not conceive the long-term benefits of joining such organization back then as they were struggling to build their economies and the last thing they wanted is new competitors from foreign countries competing with their domestic industries that lack the necessary competitive advantages. This is why, for instance, there are plenty of countries that up until now did not become members to the multilateral trade system as their domestic industries are not capable of dealing with such competition from foreign industries. One could mention for instance the case of the Lebanese state that is not a member of the WTO until now. In the chapter “Reforming the Law and Institutions of the WTO: The Dangers of Unexpected Consequences,” of the book “The Reform of International Economic Governance”, the author Gregory Messenger have examined the idea of reforming the WTO. According to the author, there are several reasons for which the WTO must be reformed. In the author’s words, a “reform nonetheless presents opportunities for Members not only to improve WTO law but also to do so in a manner that serves their interests.” As such, seen through these lenses, the reforms that are being advocated are for protecting the interests of the different member states. Actually, there are several reasons for which the WTO must be reformed. In fact, there is a need to ensure further trade liberalization in order to prove that the system itself is still very efficient in the face of the current trends where regional agreements are being established in plenty places worldwide. The second reason for which a reform must be enacted is the fact that such reform could clarify the existing legal disciplines applicable to the Membership. As such, one could see why such reform could be beneficial in the end for the preservation of the system itself.
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