adminbe finalised in May.
WTO is the global organisation that deals with the rules of trade between nations.
Its core business is to cultivate an enabling environment for producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business on the global market place through promoting fair trade practices.
This is done through a legal framework of WTO agreements which are negotiated and signed by the majority of the world’s trading nations, and later ratified by member countries’ parliaments.
The Geneva-based arbiter of global trade was established during the Uruguay Round (1986-1994) of the General Tariffs and Trade Agreement, a post-Second World War trade agreement that had operated on a provisional basis since 1947.
At the WTO Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001 member governments agreed to launch a new package of negotiations that was called the Doha Development Agenda (Doha Round).
The Doha Round is the first ever international multilateral trade negotiation platform that placed particular focus on helping developing countries to grow their economies through access to global markets.
The purpose of these negotiations was to work on issues that include the reduction of tariffs and trade barriers on products — agricultural and manufactured goods — with the aim of making it easier for goods and services to be traded across national borders.
Part of the Doha agenda also looks at measures that ensure fair trade and competition among member nations.
These include the restriction of subsidies for farmers and fishermen as well as the removal of regulatory barriers that affect the cross-border trade in goods and services.
According to diplomatic sources, this year’s selection of a new director-general for the WTO is taking place against the background of calls for a new dispensation within the multilateral trade organisation.
In the pursuit of establishing a fair and functional world trading systems and a platform for multilateral trade negotiations, the Doha Round of talks have stalled and negotiations have gone on longer than they were originally intended.
Statements from players in the global trade arena indicate that the organisation is in crisis as its agenda setting and negotiating forum — the Doha Round — is failing to reach the consensus that is necessary for an agreement on key issues.
Commenting on the stalled negotiation process in 2012, Chinese commerce minister Chen Deming said: “This is like mountain climbing, the summit is the Doha Round. But we’ve hit a roadblock on the way to the top, so we can either do a detour or we can find a new path.”
He said Beijing was open to exploring new pathways and issues but members should not lose sight of the fact that the main aim of Doha was to lift countries out of poverty through trade.
Lamy in 2012 also urged the member states to revive negotiations. He said: “The lack of convergence that exists today would not solve itself with time. People have to be more pragmatic and in a way more subtle, flexible and more open more than in the past. That’s why I call on ministers to start working immediately in a creative, constructive manner.”
Current talks have reached a deadlock as a result of disputes over the formulae for cutting protection of farmers and manufacturers.
In addition, there is disagreement between the developing and developed nations on how to resolve issues that the WTO inherited from its predecessor, GATT during the Uruguay Round.
The Doha agenda has also been marred by a clash over substance; this being one of the major obstacles in the negotiations.
While developing countries are seeking compensation for extensive unfavourable commitments made during the Uruguay Round, industrialised nations are opposed to this compensation for past agreements.
In addition they are pushing for new obligations in the areas of labour, the environment, and competition policy. While global economic super powers including the EU, the US, China and India tend to dominate the talks, developing nations make up about two-thirds of the WTO members.
Since 2001 to date the industrialised nations have demonstrated an unwillingness to accommodate the priority interests of developing nations.
There is a view that key players among developed nations seem prepared to let the talks drift or fail.
This situation will then create an opportunity for companies to lobby their governments for a mixture of import barriers, subsidies, regional trade pacts and bilateral agreements in a bid to expand trade ties with select partners.
The implications of a global trading system that is not based on a multilateral trade regime for the developing nations and Zimbabwe in particular include unfair and exploitative trade agreements that serve the interests of the global economic heavyweights.
This can have an adverse effect on the future development of developing economies as participation in world trade will then be at unfavourable terms.
There is a shared view among WTO members from developing nations that the next director-general of the organisation should be chosen from this economic bloc.
The new incumbent should have the requisite political leadership and negotiating skills to build bridges and consensus through balancing the conflicting interests among member nations and regional economic blocs.
He will also be tasked with putting in place a new approach that moves the Doha agenda forward in order to sustain world economic growth.
Online Reporter