The World Trade Organization (WTO) is struggling to define its role in a fast-shifting geopolitical climate. The multilateral system is now wading through the implications of both trade wars and real wars. The WTO will be fortunate if it can help countries maintain the status quo, let alone facilitate additional trade liberalization anytime soon.

The resurgence of export restrictions—bans, controls, and sanctions—is one particularly concerning area for the rules-based trading system. Headline-grabbing policies are popping up in a variety of novel contexts. Such policies sometimes push trading partners to respond with additional actions—often in conflict with other WTO rules—to protect themselves from being exposed to future restrictions. This risks a downward spiral.

The WTO should continue to encourage members to limit their use of export restrictions and to keep them targeted and temporary when sales limits must be implemented. But the WTO also needs to push into new and uncomfortable areas and do more, especially to protect the most vulnerable countries in the trading system.