The United States did not bend its WTO rhetoric at the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires this week.

Among the first speakers at the WTO summit in Buenos Aires, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer hit hard.

“We are worried, the WTO is losing its essential objective, and becomes a litigation-oriented organization,” the US negotiator regretted, in a new charge of his country against the multilateral organization.

By blocking the process of appointing its members, Washington complicates the functioning of the WTO dispute settlement body, which arbitrates the many disputes between countries, including the granting of subsidies or the imposition of taxes on imported products.

“We can not maintain a situation in which new rules apply only to a few, and others get a pass because they are developing countries,” he also denounced, in reference to countries like China and India.

“Too often,” he says, “members tend to believe they can not get what they negotiate.”

The WTO Ministerial Conference, which is held every two years, is taking place until Wednesday in Buenos Aires, in the context of a weakened organization.

On Sunday, the WTO boss, Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo, asked Washington “for political commitment, political will and flexibility.” “Without flexibility, we will not go anywhere,” he warned.

The United States has signaled its intention to renegotiate a number of WTO-brokered trade agreements, having already withdrawn abruptly from the Asia-Pacific Free Trade Agreement and initiated renegociations for NAFTA Agreement with Mexico and Canada.

On Monday and Tuesday, the representatives of the 164 countries will follow one another at the podium to express their wish to see the conclusion of different agreements including in the field of fishing and agriculture.

For developing countries, the conference serves as an opportunity to reach new agreements with other countries to boost their own economies or particular sectors. The representative of Mali, for example, seeks to secure outlets for his country’s cotton production. For Lesotho, the priority is to obtain financing for infrastructure development, to facilitate textile exports to the United States and trout to Japan.

On Sunday at the opening ceremony, Argentine center-right President Mauricio Macri defended the WTO. “The problems of the WTO are resolved with more WTO, not less WTO,” Macri said.

“I believe in this system, not because it is perfect but because it is essential, and it is the best we have,” Azevedo said, stressing that the WTO has prevented “unilateral protections, potential economic wars and economic catastrophes”.

“Buenos Aires,” he said, “will be just another step in the direction of trade liberalization.”

There could also be an announcement this week in Buenos Aires about the old draft EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement. Negotiations have progressed but the Europeans are so far holding back.