From the Failure of the WTO in Seattle ... to the Conditions for Global Governance

Ever since the WTO Conference in Seattle, there has been growing awareness of globalisation issues within civil society and this awareness has now spread beyond the circle of the best-informed activists. Many categorically and perhaps a little prematurely, question the legitimacy of the WTO. Hence, a profound crisis of confidence, or rather distrust, between civil society and international organisations that, like the WTO, have been trying for years to establish a truly negotiated state of law that is neither unilateral nor imposed by the most powerful. We have seen attitudes that amount to wiping clean the slate of the past and burying history. One can imagine a more constructive approach: to try to find "alternative" solutions and propose reform of whatever is malfunctioning, while being careful to strengthen whatever is satisfactory. Such an approach is demanding: at the very least it entails taking a ruthless "inventory". Although it is beyond the scope of this paper to make such an inventory, it is nonetheless possible to outline some basic thinking and offer proposals on trade and on how the WTO should be reformed and develop.