World Trade Organization’s (WTO) chief Roberto Azevedo has warned that the global trading system and the WTO are heading for the ‘dark ages’ if urgent steps are not taken. Therefore, he said that the world needs a global multilateral agreement for e-commerce. He also emphasized that the multilateral trading system created after the Second World War has never seen challenges this big.
However, Azevedo argued that the multilateral trading system is viable. He said “we are working to make it even more viable. I don't think a stagnant multilateral system is viable, it has to evolve and respond to the global reality and a world that is changing faster than it ever has before.” He added that this has not been happening so far.
WTO chief said “it's unacceptable that an organisation like the WTO in 2018 was not talking about e-commerce or the digital economy. It's the core of the global evolution today. That's when the reform conversation began.” He also said “the system needs to be updated, modernized, and that's the challenges that we have now. Either the system is updated, or it will lose relevance and disappear. It will be supplanted by other mechanisms. This is a challenge for the global community, not the WTO.”