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The World Trading System in Dire Straits: Legal Challenges, Tariff...
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The World Trading System in Dire Straits: Legal Challenges, Tariff Disputes, and the Future of the World Trade Organization

A Special Issue of Laws (ISSN 2075-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2026) | Viewed by 2022

Editors

Prof. Dr. Petros C. Mavroidis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Columbia Law School, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Interests: international trade; foreign; comparative law
Prof. Dr. Klemen Podobnik

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: corporate law; antitrust; intellectual property law
Dr. Mislav Mataija

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Legal Service, European Commission, 1049 Brussels, Belgium
Interests: international trade law; EU law; EU internal market law

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue examines the global trade implications of the United States’ Liberation and Trafficking tariffs, with a particular focus on the responses of China, Canada, and Mexico. These measures have raised fundamental questions about the resilience of the multilateral trading system and the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in managing contemporary trade disputes. This Special Issue, therefore, invites contributions that analyze how individual countries have responded to these tariffs and what such responses reveal about the adaptability of the WTO framework.

Central themes include whether the WTO can continue to operate in its current form or whether the present challenges signal a need for reform and new directions in global trade governance. For chapters addressing specific countries, we welcome evaluations of national strategies and their broader implications for the multilateral system. For contributions focusing on institutions, we seek analyses of how these tariffs affect the functioning of the WTO and what this episode signals about the future of the world trading order.

By bringing together diverse perspectives, the aim of this Special Issue is to advance the general understanding of how trade policies, institutional responses, and international norms interact in an era of rising geopolitical and economic tensions. We especially encourage submissions that provide critical insights into the stability and adaptability of the WTO, as well as reflections on possible trajectories for the future of international trade relations.

Prof. Dr. Petros C. Mavroidis
Prof. Dr. Klemen Podobnik
Dr. Mislav Mataija
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Laws is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • international trade
  • WTO
  • tariffs
  • US trade policy
  • China
  • Canada
  • Mexico
  • multilateralism
  • global trade governance
  • trade disputes
  • institutional resilience

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 200 KB  
Article
The New Way of Working at the WTO: Looking at ECA
by Gabrielle Marceau and Antoine Comont
Laws 2026, 15(4), 97; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws15040097 - 18 Aug 2026
Viewed by 436
Abstract
The growing inability of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to conclude new multilateral agreements has prompted groups of like-minded Members to experiment with alternative forms of trade cooperation. The Agreement on Electronic Commerce (ECA), concluded in 2024 but not incorporated into Annex 4 [...] Read more.
The growing inability of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to conclude new multilateral agreements has prompted groups of like-minded Members to experiment with alternative forms of trade cooperation. The Agreement on Electronic Commerce (ECA), concluded in 2024 but not incorporated into Annex 4 of the Marrakesh Agreement, exemplifies this evolution. Negotiated by WTO Members, within the WTO, and with the stated objective of eventual integration into the multilateral framework, the ECA nevertheless currently operates as an autonomous treaty governed by public international law. This article argues that it represents a new way of working within the WTO and illustrates the emergence of what the authors describe as an “imperfect agreement”: a legally binding instrument that remains institutionally connected to the WTO while operating outside its formal legal architecture. The article first examines the legal status of the ECA and the institutional consequences of its implementation outside the WTO framework, including its interim governance arrangements and autonomous dispute settlement mechanism. It then analyses how the agreement manages its interaction with WTO law by preserving the rights of non-participating Members, limiting potential conflicts with existing WTO obligations, and maintaining a credible pathway towards future incorporation into the WTO legal system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The World Trading System in Dire Straits: Legal Challenges, Tariff Disputes, and the Future of the World Trade Organization)

Other

Jump to: Research

8 pages, 180 KB  
Perspective
The European Union, the WTO, and the “Rhetoric of Reaction”
by Carlo M. Cantore
Laws 2026, 15(4), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws15040096 - 18 Aug 2026
Viewed by 565
Abstract
This article examines the European Union’s response to the United States’ challenge to two pillars of the multilateral trading system: the Most Favoured Nation principle and compulsory third-party adjudication. Drawing on Hirschman’s analysis of the “Rhetoric of Reaction”, it argues that the United [...] Read more.
This article examines the European Union’s response to the United States’ challenge to two pillars of the multilateral trading system: the Most Favoured Nation principle and compulsory third-party adjudication. Drawing on Hirschman’s analysis of the “Rhetoric of Reaction”, it argues that the United States has framed its attack to the WTO disciplines through claims of perversity, futility, and jeopardy. Rather than resisting this rhetoric, the European Union has increasingly echoed that discourse. Using the “Liberation Day” tariffs and the ensuing Turnberry “deal” as a test case, the article shows how the European Union moved from its firmer reaction to the 2018 Section 232 measures to a more deferential posture in 2025, including the acceptance of discriminatory tariffs and the decision not to initiate WTO litigation. The article contends that this shift weakens the European Union’s traditional role as a defender of multilateralism, normalizes departures from non-discrimination and dispute settlement, and risks accelerating the erosion of key principles of the WTO legal order. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The World Trading System in Dire Straits: Legal Challenges, Tariff Disputes, and the Future of the World Trade Organization)
8 pages, 158 KB  
Perspective
Revising the WTO Contract: Is the Trump Administration’s Vision Workable?
by Simon Lester
Laws 2026, 15(4), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws15040091 - 11 Aug 2026
Viewed by 305
Abstract
As part of their broad commentary on U.S. trade policy and the world trading system, the U.S. Trade Representatives during each of Donald Trump’s terms in office have offered a public critique of specific aspects of the WTO as a “contract”. In doing [...] Read more.
As part of their broad commentary on U.S. trade policy and the world trading system, the U.S. Trade Representatives during each of Donald Trump’s terms in office have offered a public critique of specific aspects of the WTO as a “contract”. In doing so, they offer a vision of the system that is very different from the current understanding. Along with these personal views put forward by individual Trump administration officials, as part of WTO reform discussions, the U.S. government is making formal proposals that would reshape the system in practical terms. Is the vision presented by the U.S. trade leadership, in both their personal and official capacities, workable? This article considers the implications of these high-level informal critiques and formal proposals for the future of the trading system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The World Trading System in Dire Straits: Legal Challenges, Tariff Disputes, and the Future of the World Trade Organization)
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