New Delhi, Dec. 27 -- Trade multilateralism, institutionalized by the World Trade Organization (WTO), is facing a grave crisis. Although the situation has accentuated after Donald Trump became President of the United States for the second time in 2025, the crisis began much earlier. The WTO crisis involves multiple issues. First, a critical factor plaguing the WTO is a weakened rule-making function, stemming from countries' inability to agree on new or amended rules.

A key function of the WTO is to provide a global platform for creating new rules governing international trade. However, the WTO has not done well on this front. It has essentially implemented the rules governing global trade that countries adopted during the Uruguay Round o...