The WTO Is Dead. Long Live the WTO
Even before the coronavirus, the organization was hurtling toward the irrelevance that doomed its predecessors.
What broke the WTO?
Photographer: Simon Dawson/BloombergMany of the world’s multilateral organizations have the longevity of nation-states. The International Telecommunication Union is older than Germany. The World Intellectual Property Organization directly descends from a body Victor Hugo helped to establish. The institutions governing global trade, by contrast, last about as long as Spinal Tap drummers.
After 25 years of existence, the World Trade Organization may be hurtling toward the irrelevance that doomed its predecessors. Robert Azevedo, who has been director-general since 2013, will step down before his term formally ends next year, four people familiar with the matter told Bryce Baschuk and Jenny Leonard of Bloomberg News.