The World Trade Organization’s director-general, Roberto Azevêdo, has called for an urgent shakeup of his institution, and one of the main reform proposals is to abandon consensus-based decision-making. That might boost efficiency, but it could jeopardize one of the WTO’s greatest assets: its legitimacy.
OXFORD – The World Trade Organization’s director-general, Roberto Azevêdo, has called for an urgent shakeup of his institution. Last week, he declared the WTO to be in “the most serious situation [it] has ever faced,” and now he is convening crisis talks with member countries. One of the main reform proposals, reportedly advocated by the United States and the European Union, is to move away from consensus-based decision-making – one of the WTO’s founding principles. That might boost efficiency, but it also could jeopardize one of the WTO’s greatest assets: its legitimacy.
The current impetus for reform is driven by the desire to bring global trade negotiations back to the WTO. With multilateral talks floundering – the WTO’s Doha Round talks stalled again this summer, as India blocked implementation of the “Bali Package,” the modest agreement reached at last year’s ministerial conference – some of the WTO’s largest members, notably the US and EU, are pursuing bilateral and regional trade agreements.
These efforts include the US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The US and the EU are also leading the charge on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), assembling a coalition of like-minded WTO members for closed-door negotiations on further liberalization and new rules for their mutual trade in services. To date, none of these non-WTO talks include the other major players in global trade – China, India, and Brazil.
OXFORD – The World Trade Organization’s director-general, Roberto Azevêdo, has called for an urgent shakeup of his institution. Last week, he declared the WTO to be in “the most serious situation [it] has ever faced,” and now he is convening crisis talks with member countries. One of the main reform proposals, reportedly advocated by the United States and the European Union, is to move away from consensus-based decision-making – one of the WTO’s founding principles. That might boost efficiency, but it also could jeopardize one of the WTO’s greatest assets: its legitimacy.
The current impetus for reform is driven by the desire to bring global trade negotiations back to the WTO. With multilateral talks floundering – the WTO’s Doha Round talks stalled again this summer, as India blocked implementation of the “Bali Package,” the modest agreement reached at last year’s ministerial conference – some of the WTO’s largest members, notably the US and EU, are pursuing bilateral and regional trade agreements.
These efforts include the US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The US and the EU are also leading the charge on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), assembling a coalition of like-minded WTO members for closed-door negotiations on further liberalization and new rules for their mutual trade in services. To date, none of these non-WTO talks include the other major players in global trade – China, India, and Brazil.