Razeen Sally's New Frontiers in Free Trade - Chapter 4

Sally writes that the WTO provides a few advantages within trade but is currently neither being used efficiently nor effectively. He mentions that it helps governments fight foreign protectionist policies, hinders predation practices, and encourages good domestic policies. Yet two major problems are that the WTO is rather political and it is leading to too much standards harmonization.
He notes three ways to fix the WTO’s problems: “restore focus on a core market-access and rules agenda…. revive effective decisionmaking; and, not least, scale back ambitions and expectations.”
I believe that the WTO could theoretically be a helpful tool that fosters international trade. It should be used to fight members’ protectionism, as that is antithetical to globalization. However, it seems to be quite a lofty dream to believe that numerous countries could possibly sit down to negotiations and produce rules that are “fair” to each member. What is fairness anyway?
The most important prescription that Sally makes is that the WTO should have more modest expectations for future agreements. It should humbly recognize that sweeping multilateral agreements are not effective in a world full of selfish, sovereign nations. Instead it should seek to mediate between nations as they individually trade with others.