Utilization of Plurilateral Agreements and Their Limitations - Contribution to trade rules

Due to the expansion and diversification of the WTO membership, the complexity and conflict of economic interests, and the rise of economic security demands, consensus-based rulemaking in the WTO has become stagnant and chaotic, and concerns about unilateral measures and protectionism are increasing.
In this environment, since 2018, the WTO has been drawing attention to the importance of plurilateral agreements under the JSI, which has produced certain results.
It is also no exaggeration to say that the entire trade agreements since the inception of the WTO have been based on plurilateral agreements.
This paper will focus on the importance of plurilateral agreements.
This paper will discuss the background to the attention paid to plurilateral agreements, their definitions and extensions, the conditions and factors for the realization of plurilateral agreements, their contribution to WTO rules and the path to multilateralization and their potential and limitations based on analysis of actual cases. The current status and future issues of JSI (Joint Statement Initiatives) and WTO decision-making issues will also be touched upon.

This is the English version of the Japanese Policy Discussion Paper (25-P-007) with some additional information and changes.