In this lecture, Thomas Cottier addresses the current role of the World Trade Organization (WTO), its relationship to preferential trade agreements, in particular the TransPacific Partnership and the emerging Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the United States and European Union, which all rely upon WTO disciplines.

Cottier, who is emeritus professor at the University of Bern and former managing director of the World Trade Institute, looks at the WTO and these agreements forming a system of common law of international trade and draws conclusions for the future architecture of dispute settlement and for a future agenda of negotiations at the WTO, focussing on regulatory issues in different sectors and combining goods, services, intellectual property, competition and investment rules.