At Forbes.com, Sue Esserman and Rob Howse rethink the WTO. One of their points is the following:
Issues of global equity are simultaneously becoming more challenging; the WTO cannot afford to ignore the question of who gains and who loses and the fairness of those consequences. In collaboration with other international institutions, the WTO should begin to evaluate the effects of its agreements on working men and women and vulnerable communities.
I like this idea. One thing I would add is that it might be worth evaluating the effects separately for the many different policies that WTO rules pursue. For example, what are the effects of lowering tariffs and prohibiting discrimination more generally; what are the effects of IP protection rules; and what are the effects of the sound science requirements of the SPS Agreement. With most of the estimates of the benefits of trade rules that I come across, the entire package of rules is lumped together. I'm curious to see how each aspect of the rules fares under the Esserman/Howse proposal.
