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Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have become increasingly frustrated with all three of its main functions: monitoring member states’ trade policies, providing a forum to negotiate new trade agreements, and arbitrating trade disputes. In recent months, this has triggered an effort to reform the WTO—what U.S. ambassador to the WTO Dennis Shea termed “the Autumn of WTO reform.” On October 24-25, Canada will host a meeting of 12 other trade ministers, including those from Brazil, the European Union, and Japan, to discuss possible reforms to the WTO. The United States and China have not been invited to the meeting in Ottawa but are expected to join the process “at a later date” to update the WTO’s policies and processes to better suit twenty-first-century trade challenges.

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