Reforming the World Trading System Legitimacy, Efficiency, and Democratic Governance

The 1994 agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulates over 95% of world trade amongst 148 member countries. The November 2001 Declaration of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Doha, Quatar, has launched the Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations in the WTo on 21 topics aimed at far-reaching reforms of the world trading system. On August 1st 2004, the WTO General Council reached agreement on a detailed Doha Work program with the aim of concluding negotiations in 2006. This volume provides discussion and policy recommendations by leading WTO negotiators and policy-makers, and analysis by leading economists, political scientists and trade lawyers on the major subjects of the Doha Round negotiations. Over 30 contributors explore the complexity of the world trading system and of the WTO negotiations for its reform from diverse political, economic and legal perspectives.

1 - The Doha Development Agenda: Political Challenges to the World Trading System - A Cosmopolitan Perspective
2 - A Development Perspective on the WTO July 2004 General Council Decision
3 - Cordell Hull, the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act and the WTO
4 - How to Forge a Compromise in the Agricultural Negotiations?
5 - The Agricultural Negotiations: The Road from Doha and How to Keep the Negotiations on a Positive Track
6 - Strategic Use of WTO Dispute Settlement Proceedings for Advancing WTO Negotiations on Agricultural Subsidies
7 - Developing Country Proposals for the Liberalization of Movements of Natural Service Suppliers
8 - Navigating Between the Poles: Unpacking the Debate on the Implications for Development of GATS Obligations Relating to Health and Education Services
9 - Negotiations on Domestic Regulation and Trade in Services (Article VI GATS): A Legal Analysis of Selected Current Issues
10 - Operationalizing the Concept of Policy Space in the WTO: Beyond Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Countries
11 - Can WTO Technical Assistance and Capacity-Building Serve Developing Countries?
12 - Developing Countries Interests and Negotiation Positions on Protection of Geographical Indications and Traditional Knowledge
13 - Come Together? Producer Welfare, Consumer Welfare and WTO Rules
14 - Non-Discrimination, Welfare Balances and WTO Rules: An Historical Perspective
15 - Is There a Need for Additional WTO Competition Rules Promoting Non-Discriminatory Competition Laws and Competition Institutions in WTO Members?
16 - Are the Competition Rules in the WTO TRIPS Agreement Adequate?
17 - Investment and the Doha Development Agenda
18 - The "Human Rights Approach to International Trade" Advocated by UN Human Rights Bodies and by the International Labour Organization: Is it Relevant for WTO Law and Policy?
19 - Parliamentary Oversight of WTO Rule-Making: The Political, Normative and Practical Contexts
20 - How Can Parliamentary Participation in WTO Rule-Making and Democratic Control Be Made More Effective in the WTO? A United States Congressional Perspective
21 - How Can Parliamentary Participation in WTO Rule-Making and Democratic Control Be Made More Effective? The European Context
22 - A Parliamentary Dimension to the WTO - More than Just a Vision?
23 - A Few Thoughts on Legitimacy, Democracy and the WTO
24 - The WTO and Cosmopolitics
25 - Transparency, Public Debate and Participaton by NGOs in the WTO: A WTO Perspective
26 - Improving the Capacity of WTO Institutions to Fulfil their Mandate
27 - Chairing a WTO Negotiation
28 - Are WTO Decision-Making Procedures Adequate for Making, Revising and Implementing Worldwide and 'Plurilateral' Rules?
29 - Is There a Need for Restructuring the Collaboration Among the WTO and UN Specialized Agencies so as to Harness their Complementarities?
30 - Can the WTO Dispute Settlement System Deal with Competition Disputes?

Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann is Professor of Law at the European University Institute, Florence.