Steve Charnovitz
19 May 2020
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is under stress with all three of its governing branches suffering instability. Unfairly assaulted by the Trump Administration, the WTO's judicial branch has suffered a loss of its appellate court. The WTO's legislative branch is still operative, but the WTO was unable to hold the legally-required Ministerial Conference in 2019 and now will probably fail to convene such a Conference in 2020. The WTO's executive branch has continued to perform, but recently the Director General (DG) Roberto Azevêdo announced that he will step down at the end of August 2020.
Later in May 2020, the WTO is expected to begin the DG selection process and to announce that it will try to conclude the internal election in late June. Count me as skeptical that this selection process will succeed on such a rapid timetable. Choosing a DG requires consensus and after the shameful misbehavior of the Trump Administration in blocking the consensus needed to fill Appellate Body vacancies, I see no reason to believe that the Trump Administration will cooperate with the rest of the world in appointing a new DG for the WTO.
Although the WTO Director-General is not the most important international post, this position has become more vital for the WTO in this time of economic upheaval. Even before Covid-19, the WTO was reeling from the centrifugal forces of nationalism and protectionism. Now, the whole future of the world trading system is mired in doubt.
The world economy depends upon an effective WTO to enforce its rules and to improve the rulebook to address many new challenges that are destabilizing cross-border trade. As a so-called "Member-driven" organization, the WTO's DG has not played as central of a role as the analogous chief executive does in other organizations. Yet, that intentionally passive leadership may be one reason why the WTO has suffered a disappointing performance over the past 15 years in liberalizing world trade and attaining the needed complementary economic policies. The WTO needs a DG with a moral mandate to put new ideas on the table and to corral governments into considering deeper cooperation and balanced compromises.
The WTO DG election process is typically an un-transparent affair. Operating behind closed doors, WTO member governments offer nominations from among their own nationals that are then winnowed down to choose a consensus candidate. Some good men (no women yet!) have been selected through such an insular process over the past 25 years. But the nominees are typically drawn only from domestic trade ministries and departments. No role exists for civic society, parliamentarians or the world business community to influence the election.
My proposal is to establish an informal search committee that would prepare a short list of the best candidates from around the world that might be induced into taking the job of leading the trading system and the WTO out of our current crisis. The WTO itself would never hire an executive search firm or appoint a non-bureaucratic search committee. But a group of forward-thinking governments could establish such an informal search committee to look for the ideal candidate that would be trusted by both the rich and the poor countries and by most of the WTO's stakeholders. With a few key governments signing onto the effort, perhaps some foundations interested in preserving and improving the best parts of the global economy could provide support for an open, transparent process of finding the best candidates to head the WTO. In addition to WTO member governments, participation should be sought from the many stakeholders concerned about the future of the WTO such as international nongovernmental groups focused on:
-- the environment and sustainability,
--workers, unions, and employment,
--investor and trader rights,
--consumers,
--advanced manufacturing,
--food production and nutrition,
--human health and safety, and the duties of regulators,
--economic development and poverty alleviation,
--transportation, logistics, and supply chain design,
--fair competition in the market,
--internationally-traded services,
--human rights, and
--world peace and security.
Candidates to become the WTO DG should be given an opportunity to make online presentations as to how they would lead the WTO. Candidates should also be asked to respond to questions from responsible stakeholders.
Bringing innovation to hidebound organizations, especially intergovernmental organizations, is never easy. Conceivably, the WTO, which has been struggling for years, may find a way on its own to conjure the new leadership that it needs. But equally or more likely is that the WTO won't find a way forward without an infusion of outside help. Disasters sometimes beget new opportunities. In my view, the current world health and economic crisis of the novel coronavirus can provide the extra time and the newly-accepted virtual tools to experiment with novel methods for finding the best candidates to lead the WTO through these pivotal and dangerous times.
