By Keith Taylor - 14th August 2011
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) isn't working – the current round of negotiations (Doha) has been going since 2001, and seems no nearer to reaching any conclusion. Each year's procrastination is mounting evidence that the WTO is no longer 'fit for purpose' and needs a thorough restructuring.
The reasons that lie behind this conclusion are both political and structural. Meaningful debates are urgently needed on its decision making, process, mandate and functioning, and the future of the organisation itself. Such was the European parliament's view in 2008, following on from the 2005 Sutherland report which suggested improvements to the organisation.
The European parliament agrees on the importance of trade as an "effective tool for development and poverty reduction". It also reinforces its commitment to multilateralism as a mechanism to "promote free and fair trade and help achieve the UN millennium development goals".
But at the heart of the dilemma for world trade policy is the conflict between agreements at multilateral, plurilateral or bilateral levels. The present mechanisms and mandate of the WTO seem incapable of achieving multilateral agreement, and either of the two remaining alternatives weaken progress in that direction. The recent and proposed EU free trade agreements with Korea, Canada and Japan will further undermine multilateralism. Moreover, agreements between a small number of countries run the risk of further impoverishing least developed countries who are not included in the deal.
A fundamental WTO rethink could offer improved prospects for achieving real global buy-in.
Many voices have called for the WTO to move closer to the United Nation models of good practice, and point to the fact that the WTO is the only global rule-setting organisation that is not part of the UN family.
Further work needs to be done on the WTO remit - currently it concerns itself only with matters of trade, whereas enabling a wider perspective in addressing non-trade concerns would be a positive step forward.
At present, the WTO consensus based decision making is neither transparent, inclusive nor accountable. In the whole history of the WTO a single vote has never been taken. This absolute lack of democracy denies any real sense of ownership of decisions and is a barrier to multilateral agreements. I believe for proper accountability all decisions should be taken by voting in the general council or other formal bodies. It is essential that less developed countries participate fully in rule-setting and policy development, and one way to help this happen would be to provide technical assistance to them help build capacity as of right.
Such calls as these have been made before and have gone unanswered. To address them takes two things. First, political honesty - by accepting the Doha round isn't going anywhere. Second, we need political leadership which is unafraid of criticism for the Doha failures and which can open up a new public space for debating what sort of rules should govern the global economy in the 21st century.
Instead of the WTO's determined belief in free trade as the dominant model for the world economy, we should have an open debate over other approaches which prioritise trade justice and sustainable development over neoliberal economics.
