South Centre Working Paper, 1 September 2025

WTO Reform: Rewriting Trade History – The United States as Architect and Beneficiary of the Multilateral Trading System

A Working Paper on Elements of WTO Reform, 1 September 2025 

By Vahini Naidu, Trade for Development Programme, South Centre

This paper examines the revisionist trade narrative advanced by the United States, which portrays multilateral rules as disadvantageous and seeks to justify unilateral tariffs and coercive bilateral arrangements. It demonstrates that the principles of non-discrimination and reciprocity pre-date Bretton Woods and were embedded in the multilateral system through U.S. initiatives from the 1930s through the creation of GATT in 1947. Far from being disadvantaged, the U.S. has consistently shaped and benefitted from the system, including through the Uruguay Round’s expansion of enforceable rules on services, intellectual property, and investment. The analysis shows that the shift toward what has been termed the “Turnberry system” risks fragmenting global markets, eroding the MFN principle, and deepening structural asymmetries that leave developing countries more vulnerable to exclusion. By correcting historical records, the paper underscores the importance of defending multilateral guarantees of equal treatment while building institutional capacity and strategic coordination to better safeguard development priorities in an increasingly contested global order.

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WTO Reform: Rewriting Trade History – The United States as Architect and Beneficiary of the Multilateral Trading System