For over 75 years, the multilateral trading system has helped ensure stability and order in the global economy… fostering an era of unprecedented global prosperity. But now this liberal trading order is in crisis. International cooperation on trade has largely broken down. The United States, the longtime champion of open markets, has abandoned its commitment to free trade, multilateral cooperation, and respect for the rule of law. By imposing tariffs and providing massive subsidies across multiple industrial sectors, Washington has openly violated the WTO’s rules and principles. China has likewise distorted and increasingly weaponized trade through its own use of subsidies and economic coercion. To avoid punishment for its violations, the United States has also paralyzed the existing system’s enforcement mechanism, thus risking the complete unraveling of the trading order. …The greatest and most immediate threat to the liberal trading order comes from the weakening of the WTO’s dispute-settlement mechanism.