On questions of reforming the WTO and its role in regulation, DG Lamy was very much in the minority opinion at this morning's ICTSD Panel on "Strengthening the Multilateral Trading System". In 2003, you will recall, Lamy (as EU Trade Commissioner) said that the WTO is a 'medieval organization' in need of urgent reform. Today he takes the different view, that the WTO does not need reform, but merely "incremental adaptation". Thomas Cottier agreed with the terminology, but not quite with the substance, saying he is unsure that the 1947 "operating system" can cope with today's complex negotiations; he disagreed outright with Lamy's earlier proposition that "the business of the WTO is trade liberalization, not regulation", pointing out that many trade issues overlap with regulation and must be addressed through negotiations and oversight. Cottier advocates a 'two-tier approach' in the WTO, distinguishing between trade rounds devoted to 'horse-trading', and an ongoing process on regulation, that needs to be separated from the rounds, and strengthened institutionally, for example through the establishment of a Ministerial Executive Council with permanent and rotating members, who would meet more regularly at Ministerial level, getting ministers more involved in the WTO. Sergio Marchi, former Candian ambassador to the WTO and trade minister added to this last point that a central problem is that ministers get involved only in the negotiations relating to particular concessions, not in the big picture, although the ministers have greater legitimacy in making systemic changes. Marchi was perhaps the most forceful speaker on the need for reform, without waiting to complete the Doha Round; "ideas for reform have gone nowhere but our bookshelves" because there is no legitimate process for making changes to the WTO. Ideas of reform, he said are "trade refugees". He, like others, would like to see the Indian led proposal on strengthening the WTO (WT/GC/W/605), that is "accepted by seven-eighths or more" of the membership, adopted this week or soon. The proposal makes a number of points on relatively small ("incremental"?) changes to the WT, the most important of which relate to strengthening of committee chairs and also the work of the Committee on RTAs.
Not likely to happen, but who knows? Lamy, who left before the other panelists spoke, described the Ministerial as a test to gauge the political determination to conclude the Doha Round in 2010. The elephant in the room (who is more often not in the room, or at least in another room) is the US. As Marchi said, a lot depends on a particular country, that needs to get its mandate, or else Ministers will be on a "stationary bicycle - a lot of sweating, but very little moving".
