At the end of 2017 different groups of WTO members decided to launch talks on four subjects, setting aside the WTO consensus working practice. This paper argues that these ‘joint statement initiatives’ (JSIs) should seek to establish open plurilateral agreements (OPAs) even in instances where the outcome can be incorporated into existing schedules of commitments of participating WTO members. Designing agreements as OPAs provides an institutional framework for collaboration among the responsible national authorities, transparency, mutual review and learning, as well as alternatives to default WTO dispute settlement procedures which may not be appropriate for supporting cooperation on the matters addressed by the JSIs. In parallel, WTO members should establish enforceable multilateral principles to ensure OPAs are compatible with an open global trade regime.

中文翻译：

---

诸边合作作为贸易协定的替代选择：一次创新一个领域

2017年底，世贸组织各成员小组决定就世贸组织达成共识的工作作法，围绕四个主题开展会谈。本文认为，这些“联合声明倡议”（JSI）应该寻求建立开放的多边协定（OPA），即使在可以将结果纳入世贸组织成员参与的现有承诺时间表中的情况下也是如此。将协议设计为OPA，可为负责任的国家主管部门之间的合作，透明度，相互审查和学习以及不适合支持JSI解决的事项上的合作的默认WTO争端解决程序的替代方案，提供一个体制性框架。在平行下，