How the World Trade Organization lost control of its two most important members — and became irrelevant in the process.
Illustration by Valeria Petrone
On November 30, 2020, in a small classroom in Geneva, Switzerland, one of the world’s most powerful courts withered into nothing.
That day, Dr. Hong Zhao, the last remaining member of the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body, stepped down. For 25 years, the seven-person committee had provided the final say in trade disputes between the WTO’s member countries, acting in many ways as the referee of globalization. As of 2022, 98 percent of the $25 trillion global trade market to
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