WTO has a key role to play in global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic
- The WTO has an irreplaceable role in transforming countries’ economic prospects and the lives of people around the world
- Failure to revive an effective, rules-based international trade system will undermine governments’ efforts to pull the global economy out of recession
The World Trade Organisation is in the news mostly for the wrong reasons nowadays. Many people regard it as an ineffective policeman of an outdated rule book that is unsuited to the challenges of the 21st-century global economy. WTO members generally agree the organisation urgently needs reforming to remain relevant.
Whoever Azevedo’s successor is will face a major challenge. Since its establishment in 1995, the WTO has failed to conclude a single round of global trade talks, missing an opportunity to deliver mutual benefits for its members. The Doha Development Round, which began in November 2001, was supposed to be concluded by January 2005.
Fifteen years later, WTO members are still debating whether the Doha process should continue. Some think it has been overtaken by events, while others want to pursue further negotiations.
The WTO has so far delivered disappointingly few other notable agreements, apart from the Trade Facilitation Agreement, which came into force in February 2017, and the 2015 decision to eliminate all forms of agricultural export subsidies.
Meanwhile, some members have worked together on a raft of much broader regional trade deals that cover pressing issues such as the digital economy, investment, competition, the environment and climate change.
