US Courts Size Up Trump Tariffs With WTO Defanged
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When President Donald Trump set about upending the global trading system after his first election in 2016, some wonks held out hopes that he might be constrained by the World Trade Organization. The US had signed on to rules, after all, and there was a dispute system that could hold Trump to account, the argument went.
The response of Trump and his trade czar Robert Lighthizer, of course, was to disregard the rules. Accompanying that was a US-led dismantling of the WTO’s appellate panels and paralyze its dispute resolution system.