Wall Street Journal

A depressing rule of international institutions is that whatever their founding intentions they inevitably evolve to serve themselves or their worst members more than their original cause. The latest example is the WTO, which began as a rule-making body to promote free trade and has drifted toward protectionism when it isn’t useless.
That drift was illustrated last week with the election of Brazilian Roberto Azevedo as new WTO director-general. The 55-year-old career diplomat beat out Mexican economist Herminio Blanco, who had U.S. support.
Mr. Azevedo was Brazil’s chief Doha negotiator, and opposition to freer trade in manufacturing by Brazil, India, South Africa and other emerging economic powers made a worthwhile Doha deal impossible. It’s now moribund.
The result has been that the WTO is increasingly a bystander as the world’s economic powers ignore the global talks and pursue their own bilateral and regional trade pacts.

One thought on “Wall Street Journal

  1. shinichi Post author

    The Decline of the WTO

    The trade body picks a Brazilian who helped to scuttle the Doha talks.

    The Wall Street Journal

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324744104578471432089609010.html

    A depressing rule of international institutions is that whatever their founding intentions they inevitably evolve to serve themselves or their worst members more than their original cause. The latest example is the World Trade Organization, which began as a rule-making body to promote free trade and has drifted toward protectionism when it isn’t useless.

    That drift was illustrated last week with the election of Brazilian Roberto Azevedo as new WTO director-general. The 55-year-old career diplomat beat out Mexican economist Herminio Blanco, who had U.S. support and has a reputation as a more assertive free trader. Mr. Azevedo is by all accounts a charming diplomat who won because of support among developing nations.

    Yet he won that support in large part by helping to scuttle the Doha round of free-trade talks. Mr. Azevedo was Brazil’s chief Doha negotiator, and opposition to freer trade in manufacturing by Brazil, India, South Africa and other emerging economic powers made a worthwhile Doha deal impossible. It’s now moribund.

    The result has been that the WTO is increasingly a bystander as the world’s economic powers ignore the global talks and pursue their own bilateral and regional trade pacts. The most important trade diplomacy today is taking place within the trans-Pacific and Europe-U.S. negotiations.

    “I think we’re getting a very sick patient. The WTO at this point in time is not doing well. It’s almost like the next DG [director-general] is coming to the operating table with a very sick patient on it,” Mr. Azevedo conceded in the lead up to the vote. No one doubts his diagnosis. The question is whether he’s Dr. Kevorkian.

    According to IMF data, Brazil is among the most protected economies in the Americas. If his goal is to spread his country’s trade model, Mr. Azevedo will guarantee that the WTO will become even less relevant. Let’s hope he tries to do a Nixon goes to China and overcome his previous Doha handiwork.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *