Jim Bacchus, writing in the WSJ, is pushing for expulsion:
No specific WTO provision relates to expelling a member. Expulsion would be possible under Article X of the WTO agreement, however, if two-thirds of the WTO’s current 164 members vote to alter the agreement. If Russia were to refuse to accept the changes, then a three-fourths vote could expel the Russian federation.
...
President Biden and his administration should be leading a charge at the trade organization’s headquarters in Geneva to kick Mr. Putin and his crony government out of the WTO by seeking broad support for an amendment that would deny the Russian Federation its rights and relieve it of its obligations as a member of the WTO
Inu Manak, writing at CFR, focuses instead on suspending MFN under the national security exception:
WTO members agree not to discriminate against trading partners or among trading partners, and also to limit using border measures such as tariffs and quotas. ... However, like all rules, there are exceptions.
The process by which to do this legislatively is fairly straightforward in the United States, as the three-page bill submitted by Rep. Doggett and Rep. Blumenauer attests to. If this bill were to become law, any future consideration of reinstating normal trade relations for Russia would revert back to the previous practice of having the president reconfirm this determination as part of a reporting requirement established with Congress. ...
For such actions to be most effective, the United States cannot be the only country that denies trade preferences to Russia. ... President Biden could therefore coordinate efforts with allies to increase the consequences of these trade sanctions. If other WTO members followed suit, the hit on the Russian economy could be severe.
Notably, these actions do not require removing Russia from the WTO altogether, but could instead serve as a practical way to suspend the benefits of WTO membership. This is crucial. For a member to be removed from the WTO, the treaties would need to be altered with the support of two-thirds of the membership. This would be a challenge. Furthermore, it would be irreversible and require Russia to reapply for WTO membership—a process that can take years to complete. By using the national security exception to deny Russia its WTO privileges, the United States and its allies could attain the same results with a far less cumbersome policy option.
