TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Failure of Buenos Aires and WTO future
The gap between major and emerging economies, particularly in the Doha Development Agenda, has widened since the agendas were introduced in 2001.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
The gap between major and emerging economies, particularly in the Doha Development Agenda, has widened since the agendas were introduced in 2001. (Shutterstock/File)
T
he 11th World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires ended on Dec. 13 in a stalemate. As predicted, it failed to conclude any major trade negotiations.
However, few expected that the members would have been able to agree on less controversial trade issues, such as e-commerce, but the meeting ended in deadlock even for such minor proposals.
Since the last ministerial meeting in Nairobi two years ago, negotiations in the WTO remained in limbo, unable to move forward due to unresolved disagreements among the major members. Several aspects contributed to the impasse.
First, this owes to the “single undertaking principle,” as the decision-making mechanism, which was adopted upon the WTO’s establishment. Under this principle, a unanimous decision from all WTO members is almost impossible to achieve.
This principle, which was initially introduced to ensure the consistency and predictability of a global trading system, has become the main hindrance of the organization’s own progress.
Second, the significant increase in the role of developing countries in shaping the negotiation process has also contributed to the changing power relations in the WTO.
The gap between major and emerging economies, particularly in the Doha Development Agenda, has widened since the agendas were introduced in 2001.
