On Bilateralism in the WTO

In the process of liberalization of world trade,the dispute over bilateralism and multilateralism has never been settled. Being the biggest and the most important international trade organization,the WTO is normally deemed a typical multilateral cooperative mechanism. However,as a senior international cooperative form,it still has the features of bilateralism. RTAs,reciprocal principle,mutual recognition,DSB,etc.,prove that the WTO does not exclude but even to a certain extent heavily relies on bilateralism while improving liberalization of world trade. Therefore,in terms of the deadlock over multilateral trade negotiation,the key point is how to harmonize bilateralism and multilateralism within the WTO rather than replacement of each other or determination of superiority.