The current trade turmoil is not limited to negative economic effects stemming from the series of recent trade measures erected by the United States as part of the escalating U.S.–China trade war. The more serious issue that will unfold in the middle to long term is the potential collapse of the rule-based trading regime. The weakening of the multilateral trading system centered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) seems to continue. East Asia has been one of the largest beneficiaries of the rule-based trading regime in its course of extending and deepening international production networks and must now take proactive moves to defend and preserve this stable economic environment. Two crucial tasks in the preservation of the WTO are efforts to maintain the functionality of the dispute settlement mechanism and the revival of the WTO as a forum for future trade negotiations. At the same time, East Asia must develop a network of mega–free trade agreements (FTAs) to partially supplement a possible loss of the multilateral framework.

中文翻译：

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捍卫基于规则的贸易体制：面临风险的多边贸易体系和必要的应对措施

当前的贸易动荡不仅限于美国最近采取的一系列贸易措施所带来的负面经济影响，这是不断升级的美中贸易战的一部分。从中长期来看，更严重的问题是基于规则的贸易体制可能崩溃。以世界贸易组织（WTO）为中心的多边贸易体制的弱化似乎还在继续。在扩大和深化国际生产网络的过程中，东亚一直是基于规则的贸易体制的最大受益者之一，现在必须采取积极措施来捍卫和维护这种稳定的经济环境。维护 WTO 的两个关键任务是努力维护争端解决机制的功能，以及恢复 WTO 作为未来贸易谈判的论坛。与此同时，东亚必须发展一个大型自由贸易协定（FTA）网络，以部分补充可能丧失的多边框架。