The Future and the WTO: Confronting the Challenges (original) (raw)
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What’s ahead for the WTO: Looking around the corner and beyond
VOX, CEPR Policy Portal , 2016
(Published as a VoxEu/ CEPR blog: https://voxeu.org/article/what-s-ahead-wto-looking-around-corner-and-beyond ) Trade ministries, just as other parts of government, need to respond to calls from the public and from global leaders for action on major policy issues and global challenges. This column argues that armed with potential policy options identified through the E15Initiative, the WTO is equipped to contribute to solutions in many areas. Purposeful efforts over the coming months and years could help to boost the WTO’s essential and valuable place in ensuring responsive and inclusive furtherance of globalisation and trade and investment integration that delivers sustainable development outcomes for all.
The WTO under pressure - tackling the deadlock in multilateral trade
FIIA Briefing Paper, 2013
Multilateral trade liberalisation is in crisis. The WTO’s ambitiously named Doha Development Round has been ongoing for more than a decade. Only a few limited issues remain on the negotiation agenda. While the round is being increasingly declared dead even by WTO members themselves, the same countries are concluding deeper trade agreements than ever before. Such progress, however, takes place at the bilateral and regional level. Another major development is the appearance of deep regulatory issues on the trade agenda. The shift from customs tariffs to countries’ internal policies requires a certain like-mindedness from negotiation partners and poses challenges for national decision-making policies. Developing countries have gained less from multilateral trade liberalisation than what they had hoped for. The shift towards more fragmented trade regimes makes them even more prone to remain bystanders in global trade. At the WTO’s next ministerial conference in Bali, progress on agricul...
In this essay, I deal with the most fundamental problems and challenges afflicting the multilateral regime currently. Discussing whether, and to what extent, the WTO crisis is self-inflicted, or totally external, or, better, a mixed one, I argue that there are three main types of WTO problems, (a) existential, (b) procedural or functional and (c) external or trade-related ones, and shedding light onto previous recommendations and sometimes building on them, I come up with some suggestions as possible solutions to these problems.
It has become a cliché to say that the WTO is at a crossroads. The Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations are about to complete their 12 th "birthday" without an end in sight. Policy-makers in industrialized nations seem to be both distracted (by the effects of the financial crisis) and more intrigued by preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and plurilaterals (e.g., the International Services Agreement) than by the multilateral approach. The large emerging economies continue to play a wait and see attitude, ready to fight for their agenda, but unwilling (or unable) to exert positive leadership in advancing the DDA. The private sector, in turn, seems increasingly frustrated with the multilateral trade system. There is a generalized perception that WTO disciplines and modus operandi are outdated and cannot keep pace with globalization. In such an environment it is not surprising that some observers are even willing to pose the question: is the WTO worth "saving"...
The Imperative of WTO Reform in an Era of Rising Protectionism and Trade Wars
International Organisations Research Journal
This article substantiates the necessity of reform of the major institution of global economic governance, the World Trade Organization (WTO). A number of crucial problems facing the existing multilateral trading system (MTS) are explored: the problem of the development and efficiency of the WTO in the new environment; the weakening of the leadership role of the U.S.; regionalism; the crisis of the decision-making system in the WTO; and the recent rise of trade protectionism. These challenges point to the necessity of WTO reform, the latter two being particularly pressing since they eventually moved the issue from the realm of scientific discussion into the realm of practical initiatives. This article analyzes the first steps taken by members of the WTO in 2018 toward the organization's reform, focusing on the EU's concept paper on WTO modernization, which was the first such initiative. Emphasis is given to the pivotal role of the positions of the U.S. and China since it is hardly possible to successfully continue the process of WTO reform without them. The controversial position of the U.S., formed largely under the influence of the current isolationist and protectionist trade policy of the Trump administration, is analyzed in depth. The article concludes that the process of WTO reform is bound to be extremely complicated and may take years.
Why not in the WTO? The erosion of WTO centricity in trade liberalisation
2009
The Graduate Institute's Thinking Ahead on International Trade (TAIT) programme is a four-year research programme devoted to the analyses of medium-term challenges facing the international trade system in general and the WTO in particular. While founded on scholarship, the analysis is undertaken in association with public and business sector actors. The working method seeks advice and input from the public sector (policymakers, diplomats, international civil servants, and government officials) and the private sector in all matters but especially when it comes to gathering views, prioritising issues and developing action plans to address the challenges identified.
1997
The purpose of the conference, we are told, was to analyze the complex array of issues confronting the WTO. I found the book relevant and timely, even though the papers were written before the Singapore Ministerial, because the focus is on how the WTO could or should evolve over the long haul in order to lubricate the wheels of world commerce. The contributors are a uniformly distinguished group, all expert on their Assigned topic areas, and there is a fair bit of insight and informed prescription. The papers are deep, with the exception of one or two, well written and accessible.
Multilateral trade cooperation: what next?
Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2007
This paper first briefly describes the role of the WTO and its history. It then lays out a simple bargaining model of international negotiations, which can be used for understanding the Doha Round of talks. Using this, we distil what we regard as the major potential explanations for the difficulties in these talks. We then discuss a number of the systemic questions that confront WTO members. We suggest that the WTO should concentrate on market access, rather than on promoting a development agenda or on further expanding its coverage to deal with regulatory issues or with other domestic policies.