Using trade to undergird peace (Alan Wm. Wolff, May 20, 2026, PIIE)
To only see the WTO as a trade agreement, without appreciating its role as a peace project, is to overlook a central element of its value. Through its Trade for Peace initiative and the accession of conflict-affected countries, the WTO is seeking to carry forward the lessons learned from members that have experienced conflict, using trade integration and institution-building to support stability and reconstruction. Conflict-affected countries that are in the process of acceding include: Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Lebanon. (Iran has had observer status since 2005; its accession process is paused.)
The accessions process is designed to deliver, particularly to fragile and conflict-affected countries needed economic stability and growth, made possible by adhering to the organization’s rules for trade. It brings external discipline to bear, as well as opening economic opportunities. It aims at deeper integration of acceding countries into the world economy. Reforms at home are central to the benefit of acceding and being a WTO member. The WTO Chief Economist, Robert Staiger, on a panel at Yaoundé, Cameroon, during MC 14, the most recent WTO Ministerial Conference said that: “Economic arguments and evidence produced by WTO economists suggest that the largest benefits from market access bargaining in the GATT/WTO, whether for accession or during a multilateral negotiating round, are associated with the reduction of economic distortions in one’s own economy, distortions that are reduced by one’s own reciprocal market access liberalization.” An important benefit of WTO membership is the external discipline and pressure for economic reform that it provides. This can be especially valuable for conflict-affected and least-developed countries, which are often more conscious of their institutional and developmental needs than wealthier countries are of their own.
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