Examining WTO system amidst growing trade imbalances

The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 coincided with a period of substantial global economic growth, fueled by lowered tariffs and increased market access in a globalized world economy based on the promise of a rules-based global trading system. Two key principles, reciprocity and non-discrimination, underpinned the WTO system—the former called for countries to provide equivalent concessions and exchange of market access to one another, while the latter obliges member countries to treat products from one country the same as those from any other country.