There is “growing strain on the rules-based trading system” – as outlined by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) – “amid escalating trade tensions and compliance challenges”.

These words were expressed by WTO members at the WTO Council for Trade in Goods meeting held on May 20 and 21. This might well be confirmation of what you already know.

The council is a top-level WTO body that oversees the implementation and operation of all multilateral agreements on trade in goods, including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, agriculture, subsidies, and technical barriers to trade. Operating under the authority of the General Council, it oversees a vast network of specialised committees and working groups.

The council’s responsibilities include serving as a primary forum for member nations to monitor the implementation of agreements and to ensure that countries abide by agreed-upon rules for trade in goods.

It addresses trade concerns by providing a platform for debating and resolving ongoing trade frictions, nontariff barriers, and protectionist measures. Further, it manages committees by supervising the activities of 14 permanent committees that report to it, as well as the Working Party on State Trading Enterprises.

The committees are: Agriculture, Anti-Dumping Practices, Customs Valuation, Fisheries Subsidies, Import Licensing, Market Access, Rules of Origin, Safeguards, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Facilitation, Trade-Related Investment Measures. The additional subsidy bodies: the Committee of Participants on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products and the Working Party on State-Trading Enterprises.

The council reviewed 38 specific trade concerns, nine of which were raised for the first time, including one raised under another business. The new trade concerns (in alphabetical order) related to: Brazil – Anti-dumping Investigation and Trade-Restrictive Measures Concerning Imported Milk Powder; Colombia – Decree No. 0170/2026 and the Amending Decree: Trade-Restrictive Measures Adopted by Colombia Against Ecuador, Contrary to its Commitments under the WTO Agreements; Ecuador – Customs Service Fee for Customs Check of Goods Entering Colombia; EU – Proposed Re-Classification of Tea Tree Oil as a Category 1B Reproductive Toxin by the European Chemicals Agency Committee for Risk Assessment; EU – Proposed Cybersecurity Act; EU – Proposed Industrial Accelerator Act; UK – Trade Restrictive Measures on Steel Products; UK – Final Bound Total AMS Apportionment between the EU and the UK; and the US – Section 301 Investigations and Tariffs.

The WTO Secretariat presented a report indicating that 108 trade concerns had been reported by members as resolved or partially resolved, representing about half of the relevant trade concerns. Detailed information is available on the WTO’s Trade Concerns Database, https://tradeconcerns.wto.org/en.

The meeting saw the formal approval of the rules of procedure for the new Committee on Fisheries Subsidies, adopted at the committee’s first meeting on May 1.

In other discussions, most members that spoke reaffirmed support for the WTO or the multilateral trading system. However, views differed on how to adapt it to current challenges. Many members underlined that the system faces serious pressures, including the rise of unilateral trade measures, protectionism, industrial subsidies, overcapacity and structural imbalances in the global economy.

Several members warned that such trends are increasing uncertainty, fragmenting trade and undermining trust in multilateral trade rules. One member emphasised the need to rethink and rebalance the international trading system, arguing that this new system would require a long-term reset to higher average tariff rates, while others would require opening long-closed markets, shifting to greater domestic consumption, and addressing overcapacity.

The US introduced two agenda items highlighting transparency and compliance concerns. First, it noted that many written questions in WTO committees remained unanswered for years, stressing that the issue is the absence of responses rather than their quality, and that replies are essential for transparency and accountability.

One member pointed out that several members, including the EU and the US, had also failed to respond. Second, the US highlighted that some members had not submitted the required notifications for decades, despite many of them being simple “nil notifications” confirming the absence of relevant measures.

The next formal council meeting will take place on November 16 and 17.