Research On The Realistic Dilemma And Reform Of WTO Principle Of Consensus

The principle of consensus is one of the main decision-making mechanisms of the World Trade Organization and a major component of the multilateral trade legal system.The WTO consensus principle was applied from GATT,and gradually revealed its drawbacks in WTO.In recent years,the crisis of the shutdown of the Appellate Body and the turmoil in the election of the Director-General are all directly related to the consensus principle.As a consequence,the international community has launched a heated discussion on the WTO consensus principle.As the decision-making mechanism that best reflects the sovereign equality of countries,the principle of consensus is favored by many international organizations and conferences.Compared with majority vote,consensus is more democratic.Compared with unanimity,consensus is more operable.Compared with negative consensus,consensus is more fair.With the increase of WTO members,it becomes more and more difficult to apply the WTO consensus principle to make decisions.Based on this,“Green Room” has been derived in practice.The decision-making form of the Green Room is first through small-scale consultations and then submitted to all member states for discussion.However,while addressing the efficiency of WTO decision-making,the transparency of its decision-making process and the legitimacy of the mechanism itself have been questioned.Due to the problem of developing countries’ own capacity and the conflict of interests with developed countries,their participation in decision-making in the WTO is limited to a certain extent.It can be seen from the shutdown crisis of the Appellate Body that the efficiency of decision-making through consensus is extremely low,and fairness and efficiency are out of balance in the WTO decision-making mechanism.The WTO consensus principle originally wanted to shape a world where “everyone is equal”,but the reality is a conflict between fairness and efficiency,lack of transparency,and developing countries have no quantitative advantage.This mechanism is still dominated by developed countries.The lack of transparency is reflected in the fact that member states’ right to know is not guaranteed.The limited participation of member states in decision-making shows that the principle of consensus in the WTO has not fully considered the Principle of Difference in institutional design.And the imbalance between fairness and efficiency indicates that the WTO decision-making mechanism needs to be reshaped,its value concept is guided by the values of social fairness and seeks a balance between fairness and efficiency.Although the principle of consensus in the WTO has certain flaws,it is necessary to adhere to the principle of consensus in the WTO legal system under the background of the prevailing trend of anti-globalization and the impact of the multilateral trading system.Reform of the consensus principle.In terms of increasing the transparency of decision-making,the WTO consensus can be more clearly defined by integrating the model suggestions put forward by international scholars on the reform of the Green Room,and drawing on the specific regulations on consensus in other international organizations.In terms of improving the participation of developing countries,guided by the Principle of Difference,the rights and obligations in decision-making participation of developing countries should be reasonably allocated,and developing countries should increase the training and output of international talents,so as to effectively improve decision-making participation.In terms of balancing the fairness and efficiency of decision-making,through the Critical Mass Theory,combined with the mixed model of the Single Undertaking as the main and the plurilateral agreement as the supplement,while ensuring that the issues in the Single Undertaking are the unanimous concern of all member states,some member states are empowered Independently decide whether to join the plurilateral agreement.Make rational use of the role of third parties to turn passive consensus into positive consensus.Finally,from the perspective of China,advocate that in the drastic changes in the international trade order,all human beings need to build new values and development concepts,with the ultimate goal of world harmony,to strengthen the relationship between developed and developing countries.Friendly cooperation and development.Drawing on China’s successful experience in the “Belt and Road”,on the basis of retaining the principle of consensus in the WTO,reconstruct the legal system of the WTO to restore its original function and promote the recovery of the world economy.