Inside Out | Can WTO serve up miracles when trade ministers meet?
- The mood music from Washington may have improved amid a growing imperative to reach global agreements on trade. But decades of deadlock and procrastination leave most economists sceptical over what the 12th Ministerial Conference can deliver
Reports of the death of world trade, and in particular of the World Trade Organization, have been greatly exaggerated – perhaps in spite of the best efforts of former US president Donald Trump and his trade team led by Robert Lighthizer.
But the organisation faces a critical test of its relevance in the next two months. The imperative for cooperation on pandemic recovery – in vaccine distribution, safe travel rules and supply chain reform – and on the climate crisis, have lent urgency to the need for multilateral coordination when WTO ministers meet at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in Geneva at the end of November.
As Australia’s WTO ambassador George Mina said recently: “MC12 is not only an opportunity to deliver momentum but it is an opportunity for the group to present what we are doing to the world.”
Many would argue that, in the quarter century since the WTO’s founding in 1995, the fruits of its labour – such as the Trade Facilitation Agreement, a deal agreed in 2013 aimed at reducing customs bureaucracy – have been embarrassingly meagre.
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Head of World Trade Organization and former Australian Prime Minister discuss women and leadership
Perhaps the WTO’s greatest achievement – or biggest mistake, depending on your point of view – was to agree to China’s membership in 2001, and to oversee the country’s integration into the global trading system.