From 2007-2009, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, the South Centre, and the Global Economic Governance Programme at the University of Oxford, jointly implemented a project financially supported by the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN) to advance research and policy dialogue on trade, global economic governance and developing countries.

Globalisation, under appropriate conditions, holds the promise of growth and prosperity. Yet for many in the developing world, and for those concerned about sustainable development, the results have been disappointing. The absence of an international consensus on how best to govern the global economy for development was captured in a recent article entitled “Goodbye Washington Consensus, Hello Washington Confusion?”, which asks “not whether the Washington Consensus is dead or alive”, but what will replace it.

In Geneva, Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the Word Trade Organisation, has identified the need for a new “Geneva Consensus”. He argues that opening trade will advance development “but only if we address the imbalances it creates between winners and losers”. According to this view, the WTO forms the heart of global economic governance and remains the most efficient and legitimate forum to open and regulate world trade. WTO Members are simultaneously considering ways to revitalize negotiations within the multilateral trading system.

This growing interest in WTO reform, and the significant changes in WTO practice that have occurred since the first generation of scholarly analysis of institutional reform,  presents an important moment for scholars and analysts. Now is the time to bring new perspectives, insights and analysis and to ensure that the discussion is as thoughtful and well-informed as possible with strong participation by developing countries. To respond to this challenge, this project aimed to use collaborative research and dialogue among scholars, policy leaders, NGOs and policy analysts to help:

• Frame discussion of WTO reform in ways that focus explicitly on challenges related to development, power asymmetries between developed and developing countries, effectiveness, accountability and sustainability, while building momentum for change;
• Stimulate new thinking about the roles, functions and future of global economic governance and the institutions engaged in it over the medium-term;
• Bolster the accountability of global economic governance and improve its effectiveness at delivering sustainable development outcomes.

The project sought to:

1. build on the academic strengths of the Graduate Institute and Oxford, combined with the policy and applied experience of the South Centre and its unique direct ties to developing countries;
2. take advantage of access to leading policy-makers, practitioners, NGOs, and other partners in the field of international trade such as the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development; and
3. realise the potential for scholarly research, discussion and debate offered by Geneva as an international centre of trade policy-making. As a multidisciplinary research endeavour, the project drew on researchers at the South Center, Oxford and the GIIS with expertise in economics, political science and international law.

The Project Team included:

• Prof. Cédric Dupont, Coordinator, Department of Political Science, Graduate Institute of International Studies (GIIS).
• Dr. Carolyn Deere, Principal Member, Global Economic Governance Programme, University of Oxford.
• Mr Matthew Stilwell, Principal Member, Programme for the Study of International Organization(s) (PSIO), Graduate Institute of International Studies (GIIS).
• Prof. Ngaire Woods, Principal Member, Global Economic Governance Programme, University of Oxford.
• Mr Vicente Paolo Yu, Principal Member, Global Governance for Development , South Centre.

Key research outputs included:

• Information Gaps, Information Systems, and the WTO’s Trade Policy Review Mechanism by Arunabha Ghosh, GEG Working Paper 2008/40
• New Faces in the Green Room: Developing Country Coalitions and Decision-making in the WTO by Mayur Patel. GEG Working Paper 2007/33
• Governing the WTO’s Capacity-Building Function, by Carolyn Deere (under peer review)
• Improving Institutional Coherence: Managing Interplay Between Trade and Climate Change, GEG Working Paper 2009/49, by Matthew Stilwell, the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
• Unity In Diversity: Governance Adaptation In Multilateral Trade Institutions Through South-South Coalition-Building, by Vice Yu, The South Centre.
• ‘Reinvigorating Debate on WTO Reform: The Contours of a Functional and Normative Approach to Analyzing the WTO System’, by Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, forthcoming in Debra Steger (ed) (2009) Redesigning the World Trade Organization for the Twenty-first Century, co-published with International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Wilfrid Laurier University Press 2009.

Briefing Notes/Executive Summaries for Policy Makers

• Mayur Patel, Building Coalitions and Consensus in the WTO, Bridges Monthly Review, 21-22 (August 2007)
• Global Economic Governance Programme (2007) ‘A Governance Audit of the WTO: Roundtable Discussion on Making Global Trade Work for Development’, presented at the WTO Public Forum, Geneva, Switzerland in October 2007. Read the full report here.