Salvaging the WTO’s Future Doha and Beyond

Preparations are on in full swing for the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha. Unfortunately, the way in which clear battle lines are being drawn along North-South lines would suggest that there is a danger of Doha becoming a repeat performance of seattle. Seattle left a bitter after taste and especially the view that the WTO was functioning in an arbitrary and non-transparent manner. Developing countries had returned from seattle feeling isolated and marginalized. They had begun to question whether the WTO was ‘a rich man’s club’ and whether it could legitimately represent the interests of all countries. If Doha becomes seattle-revisited, an all indications at present are that there are such dangers, the WTO may not survive the trauma. What then would be the next step that the global community would take ? Would it be business-as-usual ? These are difficult questions, but these are questions that need to be asked if the global community is to move to a system where the distribution of gains is fair. It is by no means obvious that a non-WTO world would benefit developing countries. The question we need to ask is whether the director general of the WTO would like to be remembered as the one who presided over the demise of the WTO or as the one who had the courage to give the Organization and the global trading regime a fresh and invigorated lease of life. The papers in this volume provide a comprehensive review of issues the WTO confronts today.