Improving the capacity of WTO institutions to fulfil their mandate

Journal of International Economic Law

Volumn 7, Issue 3, 2004, Pages 705-716

  Blackhurst, Richard ^a   Hartridge, David ^b  

^a GRADUATE INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES   (Switzerland)

^b White & Case LLP   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

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Indexed keywords

EID: 4544307931     PISSN: 13693034     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jiel/7.3.705     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (5)

1. This first part of our brief paper was prepared by Richard Blackhurst. It is based almost entirely on, and draws heavily from, the author's paper 'Reforming WTO Decision Making: Lessons from Singapore and Seattle', in Klaus Gunter Deutsch and Bernhard Speyer (eds), The World Trade Organization Millennium Round: Freer Trade in the Twenty-First Century (London: Routledge, 2001).
2. See Blackhurst, 'Reforming WTO Decision Making: Lessons from Singapore and Seattle', for 15 quotations from the international press covering the period 5 December through 29 March 2000.
3. Although the vast majority of WTO Members account for only a tiny proportion of world trade, a very large number of these 'tiny traders' have ratios of trade-to-GDP that are higher than the corresponding ratios of the big traders. For such countries, trade and the fair and efficient functioning of the multilateral trading system are crucial to their economic futures.
4. See Blackhurst (note 1) for a discussion of the GATT's experience with the CG.18, and of the IMF and World Bank Executive Boards.
5. Another way to minimize the exclusivity of the Board, or at least the perceived downside to the exclusivity, would be to use broad similarities in interests and viewpoints on trade-related issues as the basis for composing the groups of WTO Members which share seats. In that way, the members of any particular group - when it was not their turn to be at the table - would feel that at least their group's seat was occupied by a country which shared many of their concerns and priorities in the trade area.