World Trade Organization

---

Topic 1: Promoting Free Trade

Since its founding, the WTO has striven to lower barriers to free trade, such as tariffs and import quotas. However, multiple factors, including increasingly regionally focused free trade agreements and the re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, challenge this goal. Trump’s, and other isolationist politicians’ promises of steep international tariffs has the potential to upset the WTO’s multilateral system and jeopardize effective economic cooperation

on the international stage. In this committee, delegates will determine policies to incentivize and protect international free trade. Delegates should consider how to maintain the WTO’s economic relevance against increasingly regional and nationally directed economic policies.

Topic 2: Effective Implementation and Monitoring 

A significant portion of the WTO’s mission is to ensure that the agreements it negotiates are faithfully carried out. All WTO members participate in compulsory “trade policy reviews,” which are in-depth examinations of how well their national trade policies comply with previously laid-out WTO commitments. Additionally, the WTO releases broader trade monitoring reports. Despite the prevalence and consistency of monitoring, the WTO faces significant challenges in implementing its policies, especially with larger, more economically independent members like China and the United States. Delegates will investigate and improve upon the WTO’s implementation and monitoring framework in light of modern economic and political