Asia's Developing Future

A brewing trade war over steel is threatening to bring the world back to the economic “dark ages” when countries used trade curbs to retaliate politically against rival governments. The World Trade Organization and its members must find ways to ease tensions between rival countries and look for innovative ways to ensure global trade rules remain relevant and adaptive to the challenges of the present and the future. It may mean revisiting the WTO and the role it can play in trade governance. One of the reasons the WTO was formed was to make sure global trade is balanced and fair by isolating international trade from government intervention. Revisiting the WTO has become urgent in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on steel imports to protect the United States’ national interest, which is purportedly endangered by dependence on imported steel. The US acted before the WTO could consider its complaints of dumping, and the European Union and the People’s Republic of China are