The trading system’s referee is about to leave the field

ONE WAYWTOWTO of thinking about the world’s trading system is as a sports match featuring a sprawling, brawling international cast of players, each with their own tactics and tricks. The game works best when there is a referee, and for nearly 25 years a group of seven judges at the World Trade Organisation () has done the job. But on December 11th this body will cease to function, because America is blocking new appointments to it. The referee’s departure will make cross-border commerce unrulier and, in the long run, invite an anarchy that would make the world poorer.The ’s appellate body is one of those institutions that most people have never heard of, but which will be missed when it is gone. Set up in 1995, it hears appeals over trade disputes and grants the right to limited retaliation where there has been wrongdoing. Some 164 countries and territories follow its rulings, and the body has prevented some of the nastiest rows from spiralling into outright tariff wars—for example, the epic spat between America and the European Union over subsidies for Boeing and Airbus. Since it was created, it has been the enforcer-of-last-resort for over 500 cases (see ).