Trump Cripples W.T.O. as Trade War Rages – The New York Times

This week, the Trump administration is expected to go one step further and effectively cripple the organization s system for enforcing its rules even as Mr. Trump s widening trade war has thrown global commerce into disarray and another tariff increase on Chinese goods set for next weekend could send markets reeling.

Over the past two years, Washington has blocked the W.T.O. from appointing new members to a crucial panel that hears appeals in trade disputes. Only three members are left on the seven-member body, the minimum needed to hear a case, and two members terms expire on Tuesday. With the administration blocking any new replacements, there will be no official resolution for many international trade disputes.

The loss of the world s primary trade referee could turn the typically deliberate process of resolving international disputes into a free-for-all, paving the way for an outbreak of tit-for-tat tariff wars.

via www.nytimes.com

I don’t really have a position on this but I’m open to the notion that PDT is right and the globalist trade boffins are wrong. What I do have experience with is the intense boredom that fills the room whenever somebody from the WTO or the USTR (does that even still exist?) starts talking. It’s like a deadly gas they can use to great effect– yes, yes, whatever you want, just please please shut up!