1/ Everyone seems to be talking about WTO reform at the moment. Thought I would share some of my thoughts. This conversation has been a long time coming. The membership of the @WTO has been skirting around the issue since #MC10 in 2015 (and before @DmitryOpines & others whisper).
2/ In 2015, the WTO held the 10th Ministerial Conference. This was the first time there was no agreement among all the countries (and territories) present were unable to agree to continue the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations. #DDA. They agreed to disagree.
3/ Lots of historical reasons for this (and a separate discussion in itself) but result was that the @WTO no longer had an overarching trade negotiation to aim towards. This meant that the membership once again focused on the regular functioning of the organisation.
4/ With that refocus, it became increasingly obvious that the system was working in the way that it was designed to do back in 1994 when the last trade round was concluded (Uruguay Round). One e.g. many countries were not keeping up to date with their notification requirements.
5/ (Side note) Notifications are as boring as they sound. Technical documents where countries inform each other @ WTO of new policy & legislative developments. While boring, they're v useful & used by other countries and businesses to navigate complex national trade procedures.
6/ Another tension that has become increasingly prevalent are the different categories of countries in the WTO. You have three - developed, developing and least-developed. Least-developed is based on UN classification but the other two are self-designating.
7/ Why does anyone care about these categories? They determine the level of obligation that WTO members need to adhere to. It's written into the rules. With no actual threshold between developed/developing categories (life is on a spectrum anyway, isnt it?).
8/ You've got some developed countries who see some emerging economies as "gaming" the system. And on the other side, developing countries who think that developed countries as trying to force them to increase the level of openess of their economies.
9/ A third area where countries have been focusing is how negotiations are conducted at the @WTO. Leaving aside the question of "new/non-DDA" vs "old/DDA" issues. How these negotiations take place has been an topic of debate.
10/ Historically, @WTO members have, w/ some exceptions, negotiated through large "trade rounds" where everyone negotiated everything at the same time. The number of countries now in the WTO and the complexity of the issues (services > tariffs) means its more difficult to do now.
11/ How you move forward on issues with a "coalition of the willing" while abiding by the foundational rules of the organisation and not undermining the development of other will be key. Issues where members are trying to do this are #ecommerce, #gender, #msmes.
12/ Right now its just talk - need to move to negotiations soon (some predict this will happen in January on ecommerce) to prove the proof of concept. This is hardly a comprehensive list of issues which fall under the WTO reform bucket.
13/ Others incl environmental issues, fisheries, subsidy reform, treatment of state-owned enterprises, increasing the participation of dvlping countries, the consensus rule. And finally, the crisis in the Appellate Body - talk to @rdmcdougall about that, this thread is too long.
14/ So as the old adage goes, never let a good crisis go to waste. This is likely a once in a generation opportunity, but not w/o risks. Finding a path through that solves the legitimate concerns while not undermining the foundation of the global economy will be no mean feat END
