Editorial Board
The Death of the WTO Now Looks Inevitable
Few global institutions have been so beneficial — and so comprehensively neglected.
Fun while it lasted.
Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
At one point, last week’s 13th biennial conference of the World Trade Organization looked as though it might be the last. Talks dragged fruitlessly into the weekend, and outright collapse seemed likely. At the last minute, an effigy of a deal was done. Almost entirely devoid of content, it merely postponed what now seems the WTO’s likely fate.
Reviving this institution is both necessary and achievable — but it won’t happen until the world’s most influential governments, and the US above all, choose to try.