The economic crisis has sparked fears about emerging protectionism and created wide interest in initiatives to monitor trade policies. The WTO regularly examines its members’ trade policies – but its reports are superficial and uncritical. In this new working paper, Valentin Zahrnt argues that these reports need a thorough overhaul to make a better case for liberal reform and serve as a more effective reference in domestic policy debates. Food for thought ahead of the WTO Ministerial Meeting end-November 2009 that is explicitly dedicated to systemic issues in the world trading system.