In this blog, GEG’s Carolyn Deere-Birkbeck argues that Ministers should use this Ministerial Conference to take leadership and push discussion of institutional reform and governance higher up the multilateral trade system’s official agenda.
With just over one week remaining before the Seventh WTO Ministerial Conference (30 November – 2 December 2009), WTO reform and the functioning of the [...]
The Global Economic Governance Programme is pleased to announce the release of a discussion draft of Strengthening Multilateralism: A Mapping of Proposals on WTO Reform and Global Trade Governance, by Carolyn Deere-Birkbeck and Catherine Monagle, and jointly published with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).
The G20 leaders’ communiqué today has provided a vital boost for global trade, but several important trade-related commitments – to developing countries, to sustainable development and to multilateralism – were disappointing or missing. With a further G20 meeting scheduled before the end of the year, leaders must now deepen and expand their trade agenda to address these shortfalls. At the same time, they must acknowledge the democratic deficits of the G20 and explore more inclusive alternatives for global economic decision-making – in particular those that would ensure greater representation of the world’s poorest countries.
Trade ministers have not met for a broad-ranging WTO Ministerial Conference since the launch of the Doha Round in 2001. At the G20 London Summit, governments should call for a full Ministerial Conference in Geneva to be held this year.[1]
When the WTO starts its work for 2009 this week, three items must be at the top of the agenda: debating the selection and mandate of the agency’s Director-General (Pascal Lamy’s current four-year term will expire this August); setting a date for a full Ministerial Conference this year in Geneva; and forging a forward-looking agenda for that meeting.
