Perceptions About the WTO Trade Institutions

This article, based on a lecture given at the inauguration ceremony for the new Advisory Centre on WTO Law, describes the broader world trading landscape into which this new Centre emerges. Taking into account the possible implications of the events on September 11, this article provides a brief analysis of the current trade policy climate, asserting the necessity of institutions for the successful functioning of markets. After a short institutional history of the GATT}WTO, the author describes the importance of institutional rules, treaty text, and practice for the success of the WTO and presents the current debate over what the scope of this institution has been, is now, and could be in the future – the debate over which important issues should be taken under the WTO umbrella, and, further, which issues are appropriate to send to the Dispute Settlement System. Finally, this article illustrates the challenges facing this dispute settlement system, proposals for reform, and the vital role that the new Advisory Centre may be able to play in resolving some of these challenges. The ceremony for the inauguration of the newly formed Advisory Centre on WTO Law, which will fulfill a vitally needed role for giving assistance to developing countries in their activities in the WTO dispute settlement system, is an appropriate context for me to address some of the broader issues of the WTO, and to situate the beginning of this new Advisory Centre in that broader context." It is my intention to do this task in four major parts. First I will discuss the broader policy ‘ landscape’ in which the trade system is situated today, recognizing that the events of 11 September in New York City and Washington DC are having an extraordinarily profound impact, but not focusing solely on that feature. Secondly, in section 2, I will discuss the WTO as an institution and the importance of the institutional rules, treaty text, and practice for the success of the WTO and other organizations related to it. In this part, I will focus primarily on the nondispute settlement features of the organization, namely the diplomatic and * Correspondence : University Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Centre, 600 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20001, USA. 1 This article is adapted from my keynote lecture delivered at the ceremony for the inauguration of the Advisory Centre on WTO Law, held in Geneva at the WTO, on 5 October 2001. The talk was delivered from rough notes, and was not recorded, so this article is partially a reconstruction as well as a subsequent editing and abridgement of that talk.