List of figures 4

List of tables 4

List of abbreviations 5

Executive summary 7

1 Introduction 10

2 EU gains from WTO: MFN, non-MFN bilateralism and Trade Facilitation 11

2.1 Advantages of MFN 11

2.2 Significance of MFN for EU businesses, including SMEs 12

2.3 MFN versus the two-tier global trading system 14

2.4 Economic gains from GATT/WTO 18

2.5 Current evidence on the benefits of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement 20

3 WTO rules: How they shape the EU’s rulebook 23

3.1 EU FTAs and the WTO 24

3.2 A case study: ‘Buy European‘ and WTO rules 31

4 The WTO reform: Towards a reconstitution of the trading system 33

4.1 Ambition 33

4.2 More plurilateralism 34

4.3 Decision-making 36

4.4 The level playing field 37

4.5 Special and differential treatment (SDT): The classification of developing countries 40

4.6 Dispute settlement 45

5 Conclusions and forward-looking recommendations 50

References 55