Unlocking WTO Decision-Making : Rebuilding Cooperative Consensus Culture to Remedy the Efficiency Deficit

This book examines one of the most pressing governance challenges facing the WTO: its growing difficulty in producing timely, effective and collectively acceptable decisions. While the WTO remains formally committed to consensus-based decision-making, this foundational principle has increasingly generated what the book conceptualizes as an “efficiency deficit”—a widening gap between Members’ expectations of institutional delivery and the Organization’s actual decision-making capacity.

Rather than attributing this paralysis to the heterogeneity of its membership or to individual Members’ exercise of “de facto veto power”, the book identifies both internal and external drivers of institutional strain. It shows how negotiation processes, institutional design and Member interactions collectively shape decision-making outcomes, contributing to persistent deadlock across key negotiating areas.

The book further argues that overcoming these constraints does not require abandoning consensus, but rebuilding the conditions under which it can function effectively. Central to this effort is the reconstruction of cooperative culture, sustained by trust, sequencing strategies and a member-driven approach that enables incremental progress. It also highlights the enabling role of institutional actors—such as the Secretariat, the Director-General and negotiation chairs—in facilitating dialogue, structuring negotiations and fostering convergence. Through this integrated framework, the book offers a pathway for restoring functionality to WTO decision-making while preserving its core principles of inclusiveness and legitimacy.

Professor Chang-fa Lo served as Permanent Representative of the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu to the World Trade Organization (WTO) from September 2020 to July 2025. He was Justice of the Constitutional Court of Taiwan from October 2011 to September 2019.

Prior to his judicial appointment, he was Chair Professor and Lifetime Distinguished Professor at National Taiwan University (NTU), where he also served as Dean of the College of Law. He is the Founder and former Director of the Asian Center for WTO and International Health Law and Policy (ACWH), and currently serves as Senior Research Fellow. He also founded the Center for Ethics and Law and Society in Biomedicine and Technology at NTU. Earlier in his career, he served as Commissioner of the Fair Trade Commission (responsible for competition law) and Commissioner of the International Trade Commission (responsible for injury determinations in trade remedy cases). He also acted as legal advisor during the accession negotiations of the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu to the GATT/WTO.

As Director of ACWH, he founded two English-language academic journals: the Asian Journal of WTO and International Health Law and Policy (AJWH, SSCI-listed) in 2006 and the Contemporary Asia Arbitration Journal (CAAJ, ESCI-listed) in 2008. As Dean of NTU College of Law, he also established the NTU Law Review (TSCI-listed). Prior to entering academia, he practiced law in Taipei.

During his tenure as Permanent Representative, he participated in numerous WTO negotiations and submitted multiple negotiating proposals.

He has served in several WTO expert capacities, including as panelist for DS332 Brazil — Measures Affecting Imports of Retreaded Tyres (2006) and DS468 Ukraine — Definitive Safeguard Measures on Certain Passenger Cars (2014), and as a member of the Permanent Group of Experts under the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) in 2008. He also served as Chair (2013–2019) of the Asia WTO Research Network (AWRN), which comprises scholars from 17 jurisdictions and 52 members.

Professor Lo received his S.J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989. As of July 2026, he has authored 15 books, edited 8 books and published approximately 130 journal articles and book chapters. He was awarded the Outstanding Scholarship Chair Professorship (2006–2011) by the Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship, and the National Chair Professorship (2001–2004) by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan, in recognition of his academic achievements. His co-edited volume Taiwan and International Human Rights: A Story of Transformation (Springer Nature, 2019), co-edited with Jerome A. Cohen and William P. Alford, received the 2021 Certificate of Merit in a Specialized Area of International Law from the American Society of International Law.

He is listed as a WTO legal expert in the roster established pursuant to Article 27.2 of the DSU (effective January 2026).

His research interests include international economic law, WTO law, competition law, treaty interpretation, human rights, international health law, government procurement, and international arbitration and mediation.