World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo (Photo: asia.nikkei.com)

The World Trade Organization wants to pursue a dialogue with the US to deal with recent disputes. 

According to Azevedo, the WTO needs to be more responsive to its members. Decision-making is one area where Azevedo noted there is room for improvement. Decisions require the consent of all 164 members - a rule meant to ensure that emerging nations have a say and are not saddled with disadvantageous deals.

But consensus has grown tougher to reach as more countries have joined the WTO. Emerging economies such as China, India, and Brazil often fail to find common ground with the US and other developed nations.

Changes to the decision-making process would address one of the main US complaints about the WTO. Washington has been frustrated by the organization's inability to adequately address intellectual property rights and other new issues in the more than two decades since its creation.

President Trump said last month that the US has been treated very badly by the WTO for many years and the WTO needs to change its ways.

US officials have accused the WTO dispute-settlement system of interfering with US sovereignty, particularly in anti-dumping cases. A US withdrawal from the WTO would have a far greater impact on the global economy than the ongoing trade war between the US and China, destroying the post-World War II trade system that the US was instrumental in creating.

The US has been blocking the appointment of judges to the WTO’s appeals body, raising the possibility that it could cease to function in the coming years.

Since World War II, successive US presidents have led efforts to establish and strengthen global trading rules, arguing that they would bring stability to the world economy.