Biden’s Trade Chief Backs WTO Reform Agenda, With a Warning

President Joe Biden’s top trade official reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to reforming the World Trade Organization in a speech aimed at blunting criticism that the US is slow-rolling efforts to update the trade body’s decades-old rulebook.

In remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington Friday, Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she and her US colleagues are “rolling up our sleeves” to advance a comprehensive reform agenda that will improve transparency, bolster the WTO’s negotiating function, and repair its dispute-settlement system.

Katherine Tai, US trade representative

Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg

Nevertheless, Tai warned that the Biden administration is not interested in “restoring” the ...