The WTO Needs to Drag Itself into the 21st Century

Inu ManakThe World Trade Organization (WTO) has recently been under fire. The Trump administration has called for its reform, but to date, its confrontational approach has aggravated allies and gotten in the way of any progress.Now, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, work at the WTO has ground to a halt, which puts the institution at risk of irrelevance. The only multilateral talks the WTO is conducting, that is, negotiations that include the entire 164 country membership, are on eliminating harmfulfisheries subsidies. These talks are now in jeopardy. A key obstacle is an inability to find a way to conduct negotiations remotely. As many of us are now working from home, it is fair to ask why the WTO can ’t do so as well?Last month, the chair of the fisheries talks, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, washopeful that negotiations would continue in order to meet the deadline for a deal by this summer ’s now cancelled Ministerial Conference. But recent reports suggest that technical difficulties are the heart of the problem. Hannah Monicken fromInside U.S. Tradereported the following:The chair of the World Trade Organization negotiations to rein in harmful fisheries subsidies has concluded that members are not prepared to commit to virtual negotiations, telling members on Thursday that further work must be put on hold as they wait for pandemic ‐​related restrictions to lift.Colombian WTO Ambassador Santiago Wills, in a communication to members, said h...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs