WTO Must Evolve From an Organisation to a Strong Institution: International CUTS

The Geneva-based World Trade Organization's member countries must work together to transform the global trade body from an organisation to a robust institution, according to the think tank CUTS International on Monday. The World Trade Organization's (WTO) institutional inertia has only recently been broken, according to Pradeep Mehta, Secretary General of CUTS International.

"Full restoration of the dispute settlement mechanism and consensus on what shape the WTO reform should take remains challenging. The WTO needs to move from just an organisation to a robust institution," he said. Mehta was speaking at a webinar to discuss the future of the WTO.

Discussions centered on whether the 12th ministerial conference, which concluded on June 17 in Geneva, could provide impetus to resurrect the institution's negotiating, monitoring, and dispute resolution functions. The WTO's highest decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference.

The World Trade Organization (WTO), which has 164 members, is a multilateral organisation that develops rules for global exports and imports and adjudicates trade-related disputes between two or more countries.