Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are aiming to make meaningful progress on key reform proposals ahead of the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) — the organization’s highest decision-making body — scheduled for March next year. This echoes Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO’s Director General’s previous call in which she insisted that there was a need for members to agree on a package of “deep and thorough” reform proposals for consideration at the MC14 if the WTO is to remain relevant. “For a successful MC14, we must act here in Geneva to deliver a package of reform proposals for ministers to consider and bless at MC14,” the DG said during a General Council meeting in May this year. “Nothing short of this can reposition this organization in the way and form needed,” she added. Since then, members have been working to gather consensus on how to reform the WTO, the world’s largest trading body that determines rules of international trade. Petter Ølberg of Norway, the facilitator for the discussions on WTO reform, told a meeting of the WTO’s General Council on Tuesday, July 22, that members had aimed at shaping a “comprehensive and credible” reform process. The, he said, was to “distil and narrow down” the wide range of views expressed into “practical, well-structured options” for consideration at the MC14. Ambassador Ølberg, who was appointed by General Council Chair Ambassador Saqer Abdullah Almoqbel (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) in early June to serve as facilitator for the reform discussions, noted that he has conducted two rounds of consultation involving nearly 100 members. The discussion has been structured around three indicative tracks: governance (institutional issues), fairness (level playing field and balanced trade), and “issues of our time.” What is already clear is this: across all three tracks, there is strong engagement, serious thinking, and a shared sense that reform is both necessary and urgent — even if views differ on the details, the facilitator said on Wednesday. The next phase of our work is about focus, discipline, and delivery. From the consultations so far, one thing is clear — we have a wide range of perspectives,” he said. “Our goal is not to solve every issue now. It’s to identify where ministers can add the guidance needed to move forward decisively after MC14,” he added. At their 12th Ministerial Conference in 2022, WTO members agreed to undertake a comprehensive review of the WTO's functions to ensure the organization can respond more effectively to both the challenges facing the multilateral trading system and the opportunities provided by contemporary developments in global trade. Speaking after more than 60 members took the floor to react to the facilitator's report, Okonjo-Iweala said she was encouraged with what I'm hearing. “I agree with those who say that it's somewhat existential for the organization to seize the opportunity to do this reform, she said. “It's not unusual that views are initially divergent ... that being said, there seems to be an unmistakable momentum. Several members noted the importance of dispute settlement reform, which is being addressed on a separate track. Addressing the General Council, Ambassador Almoqbel referred to his communication to members in early June stating that he and the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) Chair, Ambassador Clare Kelly (New Zealand), would be closely monitoring the situation on dispute settlement reform and would revert to members at the appropriate time. Since that communication, the DSB Chair has been holding low-key conversations with members to check the temperature, Ambassador Almoqbel said, and these conversations are ongoing. The reforms Almost all WTO members agree that the organisation needs to reform to act in the interests of each member. Many, especially poorest members, believe the organization has not supported free, fair, and open trade. They believe the current WTO rules make it harder for the developing countries, especially those in Africa to grow their economies in an environmentally friendly way. The African Group, a coalition which represents interests of the African countries at the WTO, said last year that it was necessary to improve WTO rules so that developing countries can have the policy space to pursue green industrialisation. The U.S., the world’s largest economy, on the other hand, has crippled the organization for many years now, saying the organization is no longer relevant today. It has blocked the appointment of new judges to the WTO’s dispute settlement system for years, saying the mechanism overreaches its mandate. According to Keith Rockwell, a trade expert, despite recent US actions which have gravely weakened the organization, neither the US nor any other of the 165 WTO member governments truly wish to see the WTO’s demise. “The fact that Trump has nominated Joseph Barloon, an experienced and highly regarded trade attorney for the position of US ambassador to the WTO, provides further evidence that the US does not intend to leave the WTO just yet, as it has the World Health Organization and the Paris Accord,” he wrote recently in the Hinrich Foundation’s trade blog. Apart from plurilateral agreements on information technology products, no negotiations on multilateral tariff reductions have been successful since the end of the Uruguay Round in 1994, when members agreed to set bound tariffs, or the maximum rate of duty any one country could charge.
