WTO's vital role in trade highlighted at seminar

Experts have called for upholding the multilateral trading system and keeping industrial policies in line with World Trade Organization rules, urging greater use of multilateral forums to discuss how those rules could be improved.

They made the remarks on Wednesday at a seminar in Geneva themed "Coordination for Industrial Policy and Global Trade Governance", held during the ongoing WTO Public Forum 2026.

Organized by Tsinghua University, the event drew more than 200 participants from governments of WTO members, the private sector, academia and the media. They included experts and scholars from China, the United States and Europe, as well as a representative from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Bai Chong-En, dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, said industrial policies remain necessary to address market failures but should be regularly evaluated and adjusted.

Their effectiveness should be measured by factors such as productivity, employment, consumer welfare and environmental benefits, he said, rather than simply by capacity, exports and global market share.

Robert B. Koopman, a senior professorial lecturer at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, said cross-border spillovers of industrial policies are a key challenge for global trade governance.

Greater international coordination can bring substantial shared benefits, while unilateral measures could backfire, he said. He urged WTO members to strengthen cooperation, starting with greater transparency.

Expanding capacity

Luz Maria de la Mora, director of the Division on International Trade and Commodities at the UN Conference on Trade and Development, said many developing countries lack the resources and capacity to implement industrial policies, which puts them at greater risk in their development efforts.

She called for global trade governance to give these countries enough room to pursue industrial policies that expand productive capacity and support sustainable development.

Bernard Hoekman, director of Global Economics at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Italy, said that despite geopolitical competition and the use of trade as a weapon, the WTO remains a valuable forum for global trade governance and helps address the negative cross-border effects of industrial policies.

He urged WTO members to discuss industrial support measures and their cross-border effects, and to pursue reforms to the relevant rules.

This year's WTO Public Forum, themed "Powering the Future", has brought together 4,600 registered participants for 113 sessions to discuss the future of the global trading system at a challenging time for international trade.

yangyi3@chinadaily.com.cn