The global order is crumbling and we need a fix to curb humanity’s worst instincts
Jean-Pierre Lehmann calls for renewed faith in multilateral institutions that work for the common good, to ensure a fairer playing field for all in trade and international relations
The World Trade Organisation was established in 1995 following the completion of the GATT Uruguay Round. It was hailed as the first institution in this new era of globalisation, a new global dawn. The post-war global trade regime had been dominated by the rich countries in what came to be known as “The Quad” – Canada, the European Union, Japan and the US. So-called third world countries were on the periphery. If they got to be too “uppity” – that is, competitive – such as the four “Asian tigers” (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore) in garments and textiles, the quad would respond with various means of protection: in this case, the Multi-Fibre Agreement, which lasted from 1974 to 2004, by imposing quotas.
The system was grossly unfair, the playing field was heavily tilted against developing countries, but for the most part they had not minded too much as they were pursuing mainly autarchic economic policies. Trade with the rich countries, as the influential Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch warned, would result in neo-colonial exploitation.
In the wake of the Chinese market reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping ( 鄧小平 ) in the 1980s, there has been a global market revolution whereby developing countries realised the benefits trade could bestow to development and poverty reduction. Thus, they sought to join the global trading system. For the benefits to accrue, however, there was an imperative to level the global trade playing field. Hope was raised when in 2001 China – historically one of the most acute victims of Western and Japanese predatory imperialist trade policies – was admitted to the WTO and its members committed to the launch of the Doha Development Round.
Two years later, in Cancún, Mexico, these hopes were dashed. From the moment we arrived, it was clear that whatever “concessions” may have been granted in the spirit of Doha, mercantilist resistance would dominate the spirit of Cancún. The talks collapsed and the Doha round fell into a coma. Various attempts at reviving the round having failed, it lies there in Geneva in its apparently permanent comatose state.
