The rapid emergence of Industry 6.0 marked by hyper-digitalization, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and algorithm-driven economies poses profound challenges for the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its legal framework. This article critically examines the capacity of the WTO’s core agreements the GATT, GATS, and TRIPS to regulate and adapt to this new industrial paradigm. Employing a doctrinal legal analysis grounded in WTO case law, treaty interpretation, and comparative regulatory developments, combined with interdisciplinary insights into AI, quantum technologies, decentralized manufacturing, and digital trade systems, the study maps the tensions between existing trade norms and technological evolution. The findings demonstrate that the WTO’s traditional legal dichotomies goods versus services, human versus non-human inventorship, and national versus global IP enforcement are increasingly untenable in algorithmically coordinated, data-driven economies. Core agreements lack provisions on digital product classification, cross-border data governance, AI-generated intellectual property, and algorithmic regulation, exposing critical doctrinal gaps and institutional blind spots. The novelty of this study lies in being among the first to systematically assess WTO compatibility with Industry 6.0 while advancing a multi-tiered reform strategy spanning doctrinal, normative, and institutional dimensions. It reconceptualizes WTO law in light of decentralized, non-human innovation and transnational digital sovereignty. Practically, the article provides actionable recommendations for negotiators and policymakers, including the creation of a Digital Trade Protocol, TRIPS amendments to cover AI and blockchain IP rights, revitalization of the Dispute Settlement Mechanism with technical expertise, and embedding digital development aid for LDCs. The study concludes that bold legal innovation is essential to preserving the WTO’s centrality and legitimacy in an era where trade is defined by intangible assets, algorithmic governance, and global digital inequality.
Sayed Qudrat Hashimy (Wed,) studied this question.