“To Dystopia and Beyond: The WTO in a Warming Megaregional World” in Lewis, et al (Eds.) A Post-WTO International Legal Order

Mexico - 28 July 2020

Trade topics: Trade and Environment, Trade Negotiations

This chapter highlights the linkages between the climate crisis and trade negotiations in a dystopic post-WTO world. It argues that the window of opportunity to achieve an effective multilateral trade regime has closed and will be sealed shut by accelerating climate change. The post-WTO regime is a megaregional regime, and it will exclude those countries that do not get on board before the destabilizing effects of the climate crisis make their inclusion impossible to achieve. Geopolitical shifts destabilized the WTO regime and have led to its collapse. The effects of the climate crisis will be even more dramatic. This chapter examines the (not even) worst-case scenario for the post-WTO 21st century, in order to highlight the importance of managing the risk of catastrophic economic, ecological and security consequences arising from the convergence of multilateral institution failure and the worsening climate crisis.
Bradly J. Condon, “To Dystopia and Beyond: The WTO in a Warming Megaregional World”, in Lewis, et al (Eds.) A Post-WTO International Legal Order Utopian, Dystopian and Other Scenarios, 19-35 (Springer, 2020).

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