A former World Trade Organization boss has said the future terms of global trade, rocked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping protectionist tariffs, could be decided outside the 30-year-old international watchdog unless it reforms itself fast. The speech late on Thursday by Roberto Azevedo, who stepped down as director-general in 2020 during Trump’s first term, was summarised by trade sources who attended a WTO anniversary event. He said a loss of appetite for shared global trading rules could encourage the creation of a replacement for the WTO that would exclude some current members, adding, according to his team: “If we don’t change, we are dead.”Read More
WTO chiefs past and present demand rapid reform to keep global free trade alive
