Expert Lecture on the WTO Reform Discussions

Join us for an online expert lecture on the WTO Reform Discussions with Dr. Maarten Smeets. This lecture will take place on Thursday, 26 March 2026, from 18:00–19:00 CET. All interested staff and students are welcome to attend.

You can participate online via Teams using the following link: Join the lecture.

Dr. Smeets will explore the current reform proposals at the WTO, the challenges facing the multilateral trading system, and discuss how fundamental changes could help restore the WTO’s relevance in global trade.

Abstract

The 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) takes place in Yaoundé (Cameroon), on 26-29 March 2026 at a moment of profound transformation in the global trading system. The agenda mainly focuses on the WTO’s reform, a process that started at MC13 and didn’t lead to any significant reforms. Geopolitical tensions, growing economic fragmentation, the resurgence of industrial policy strategies, and unresolved reform issues increasingly call into question the WTO’s role and effectiveness. At the same time, regional free trade agreements and bilateral trade deals are gaining importance, shifting dynamics away from the multilateral framework. Progress in new rule making, including the adoption of plurilateral trade agreements, is further hampered by the WTO’s consensus based decision making. MC14 offers a new opportunity to make the WTO relevant again. To that effect, a number of reform proposals have been tabled by the WTO members and touching upon core principles of the multilateral trading system. 

In this guest lecture, Dr. Smeets will argue that in view of the fundamental changes and developments in international trade and the multilateral trading system, including the geopolitical tensions, the WTO needs a major and fundamental overhaul to correct its design flaws and  to make the WTO relevant again. He will address a number of the specific proposals under consideration by the Members and discuss how they could contribute in achieving that goal.

All interested staff and students are welcome to attend!

Bio note

Maarten Smeets (PhD) is a member of the steering committee of the G-20 Trade and Investment Research Network (TIRN), a senior member and lead on trade of the High Level Expert T-20 EU Expert group and think tank Re-Imagine Europa, a senior fellow at the World Trade Institute (WTI, Bern, Switzerland), senior associate at the Clingendael Academy (Den Haag, Netherlands). He is a guest Professor at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE in Beijing and Shanghai, China). He was an associate professor at St Petersburg State University (SPBU). 

He worked at the WTO (1995-2021) where he was a head of section, responsible for WTO’s field based Technical Assistance and Trade Capacity Building Programs and the WTO Chairs Program (WCP), which he co-created in 2010. It links over 40 universities, think tanks and leading academic institutions world-wide. He now is a senior policy advisor to the WTO Chairs in Asia, Central and Latin America and Africa as well as to UNESCAP’s Artnet. He advised WTO’s senior management and governments on their trade policies. 

Prior to the WTO, he was a senior policy official at the OECD’s Trade Department, conducting research and analyzing trends in trade. He started his career at the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Den Haag), responsible for international trade policy issues at the EU level, GATT and UNCTAD.

He has published in leading journals and written, edited, (co-) edited and reviewed books, including on digital trade (WTO), inclusive growth, globalization, sanctions, structural reforms, developing countries. His most recent publications include an article on Investment Facilitation for Development, Columbia University, a chapter on economic and trade sanctions in a book prepared for the 50th anniversary of the G7 (Edward Elgar Publishing), a chapter on the ‘Trade and Tariff War’ (FEPS annual Yearbook 2026) and an article in the Journal of World Trade on plurilateral trade agreements in the WTO.

He holds a PhD from the Law Faculty (Maastricht University), a masters degree in economics (Tilburg) and degrees from the Graduate Institute for International Studies (Geneva) and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA-Paris).