Past as global trade governance prelude: reconfiguring debate about reform of the multilateral trading system

Abstract

This paper peers backwards into the history of the multilateral trading system and its development over the past half century as a means of considering what may lie beyond the horizon for the future of global trade governance. Its purpose is to underscore the necessity and urgency for root-and-branch reform of the multilateral trading system. It achieves this by comparing and contrasting the global trading system of 50 years ago with its modern-day equivalent and its likely future counterpart half-a-century hence. In so doing, the paper throws into sharp relief not only the inadequacies of global trade governance today but also the damaging consequences of not fundamentally reforming the system in the near future, with a particular emphasis on the past, present and future development of the world’s poorest and most marginalised countries.

Keywords:

• Trade
• development
• WTO
• global governance
• international institutions

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their comments, which helped to strengthen aspects of the argument. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Institute of Development Studies 50th anniversary conference, Brighton, UK, 5–6 July 2016.

Notes

1. Martin and Mercurio, “Doha Dead and Buried”; Wilkinson, Hannah and Scott, “The WTO in Nairobi”; Jones, The Doha Blues; Subramanian and Wei, “The WTO Promotes Trade”; Muzaka and Bishop, “Doha Stalemate”; Flentø and Ponte, “Least-Developed Countries.”

2. Loveday, “Suggestions for the Reform" is an early intervention.

3. Meier, “UNCTAD Proposals for International Economic Reform”; LeQuesne, Reforming World Trade; Ismail, Reforming the World Trade Organization; also Deere-Birkbeck, “Reinvigorating Debate on WTO Reform”; Hoekman, “Proposals for WTO Reform.”

4. Wilkinson, Hannah and Scott, “The WTO in Bali”; Wilkinson, Hannah and Scott, “The WTO in Nairobi.”

5. Orwell, “Review of Bertrand Russell’s Power.”

6. Bello, “Why Reform of the WTO”; Peet, Unholy Trinity.

7. Bhagwati, “Reshaping the WTO”; Draper and Dube, “Plurilaterals and the Multilateral Trading System”; Elsig and Cottier, “Reforming the WTO”; Saner, “Plurilateral Agreements”; Jansen, “Internal Measures in the Multilateral”; Steger, Redesigning the World Trade Organization; Warwick Commission, The Multilateral Trade Regime. Also, Wilkinson, What’s Wrong with the WTO, 107–31.

8. Bhagwati, The World Trading System; Bacchus, “The Bicycle Club”; Blustein, Misadventures. Also, Bown, “Mega-Regional Trade Agreements.”

9. Osakwe, “Future of the Multilateral Trading System,” 2; also Capling and Higgott, Introduction.

10. Irwin, “False Promise of Protectionism”; Trommer, “Post-Brexit Trade Policy.”

11. Ostry, “Asymmetry in the Post-Doha”; Subramanian and Wei, “The WTO Promotes Trade”; Bilal, Lombaerde and Tussie, Asymmetric Trade Negotiations.”

12. Singer, One World; Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights.

13. Smith, “Inequality in International Trade?”

14. Wilkinson, What’s Wrong with the WTO; Bernstein and Hannah, “The WTO and (In)Coherence”; Bronckers, “More Power to the WTO?”

15. Curzon and Curzon, “GATT”; Jackson, The Jurisprudence of GATT.

16. Jackson, The Jurisprudence of GATT, 401.

17. Myrdal, “Twenty Years of the United Nations”; Kaser, "Trends in East-West Trade.”

18. Howell “New Paths for World Trade,” 294; Gardner, “GATT and the United Nations.”

19. Irwin, “The GATT’s Contribution,” 147.

20. Irwin, “The GATT’s Contribution,” 147–9.

21. Jackson, “The Puzzle of the GATT”; Maciel, “Brazil’s Proposals for the Reform,” 163.

22. Ram, “Trade between Developed and Developing Countries.”

23. Gardner, “GATT and the United Nations Conference”; Proehl, “Geneva Proposals to Reform”; Dam, “Regional Economic Arrangements and the GATT”; Mills, “Canada at UNCTAD.”

24. Curzon and Curzon, “GATT.”

25. Howell “New Paths for World Trade,” 297.

26. Indeed, provisions had been made for state trading in the Havana Charter (some of which were carried over into the GATT)—the agreement negotiated for a full-blown ITO to be established as the third of three major post-war organisations.

27. McKenzie, “GATT and the Cold War,” 79.

28. See Kennedy, “The Accession of the Soviet Union.” Also Grzybowski, “Socialist Countries in GATT.”

29. United Nations, “Rules of Procedure,” 134–8.

30. Copelovitch and Ohls, “Trade, Institutions”; Basra, “Increased Legalization or Politicization.”

31. Patterson, Discrimination in International Trade, 272–300.

32. Development Policy Review, 54–5.

33. Development Policy Review, 8; Wilkinson, The WTO, 46–74.

34. Green, “UNCTAD and After,” 244.

35. Srinivasan, Developing Countries, 24.

36. Wells, “Developing Countries,” 74.

37. Mills, “Canada at UNCTAD,” 214.

38. Wilkinson, The WTO, 41–3.

39. Gereffi, “Global Value Chains.”

40. Wilkinson, “Transforming our World by 2030.”

41. Wilkinson, Hannah and Scott, “The WTO in Nairobi.”

42. Wilkinson, “Back to the Future”; Wilkinson, The WTO.

43. Scott and Harman, “Beyond TRIPS.”

44. Hannah, Scott and Wilkinson, “Reforming WTO–Civil Society Engagement,” 436–41.

45. Development Policy Review, 13.

46. Rostow, The Stages; for a review and critique see Bernstein, “Modernization Theory.”

47. Woods, “The Development Decade,” 206.

48. Woods, “The Development Decade,” 207.

49. Orwell, “Review of Bertrand Russell’s Power.”