Article content continued

A U.S. withdrawal from the WTO potentially would be far more significant for the global economy than even Trump’s growing trade war with China, undermining the post-Second World War system that the U.S. helped build.

“This is a crucial moment in the way that the international community thinks about trade and the trading system,” WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said in a speech Tuesday. “The outcome of this debate could shape the system for a generation.”

Reform Push

The WTO reform push gained new prominence after the Trump administration blocked the re-appointment of a WTO appellate body member on Aug. 27 and Trump told Bloomberg News in an interview that the U.S. would withdraw from the organization if it didn’t “shape up.”

Over the past year Trump has fought with the U.S.’s northern neighbour, seeking to rebalance the North American Free Trade Agreement in America’s favour, criticizing Canada’s dairy policies and imposing national security tariffs on imports of Canadian steel and aluminum.

Ministers meeting in Ottawa “will seek to identify concrete and tangible ways the operation and functioning of the WTO could be enhanced and improved over the short, medium and long term,” Joseph Pickerill, a spokesman for Canadian Trade Minister Jim Carr, said in an emailed statement. “Preparatory work is underway now and the full agenda will be announced soon.”

The Canadian paper focuses on three specific areas for reforming the WTO: