Reform at the top: What's next for the WTO? A second life? A socio-political analysis

• Autores: Daniel Drache
• Localización: Oñati socio-legal series, ISSN-e 2079-5971, Vol. 1, Nº. 4, 2011 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Socio-Legal Aspects of Adjudication of International Economic Disputes / coord. por José Augusto Fontoura Costa, Sol Picciotto), 20 págs.
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A fundamental change is taking place in the global economy, and the standoff in the Doha Round has raised many questions about the World Trade Organization�s troubled architecture (Khor, 2009). So far, the quest for renewed policy coherence in the rules-based multilateral system has produced stalemate rather than reform. The analysis that follows explores the proposition that, without the metaphoric �knife at its throat� to shock it to its senses, the WTO will continue in the short term to be trapped by its existing architecture. There is no coherent reform-minded movement supported by a critical number of states to instigate a change in the way the WTO does business. The paper looks at the following idea: with many states pursuing new policy frames to enhance their strategic interests, the second life of the WTO will be dramatically different from the present configuration. A lengthy trade pause is a certainty. Four options of what the WTO will become are examined. The conclusion is that as a governance body the WTO faces gradual and likely irreversible decline. It will have a smaller remit, be prone to mini-multilateralism and have to learn to live with a proliferation of regional trade agreements.