The blockade of the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body since 11 December illustrates the threats being made to the multilateral international order. China, which presents itself as one of its defenders, only partially respects it, while simultaneously it tries to modify it to its advantage. It is urgent for Europeans, in the ilk of Phil Hogan on 12 December, to defend and reform the political and trade multilateralism embodied by the UN and the WTO as the guarantors of international law.
