The ‘Sutherland Report’ on WTO reform – a critical appraisal

Extract

A perception of institutional crisis is pervading international organizations. One evermore fashionable response by the administration of an affected organization is to entrust a group of eminent persons to consider its future. Perhaps not surprisingly the resulting report calls for a politically feasible strengthening of that organization for which it provides good grounds. The most important recent example is the United Nations report entitled ‘A more secure world: our shared responsibility’. A similar approach has been taken by WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi who called Peter Sutherland, Jagdish Bhagwati, Kwesi Botchwey, Niall FitzGerald, Koichi Hamada, John H. Jackson, Celso Lafer and Thierry de Montbrial on to a Consultative Board, the task of which was to think about the ‘Future of the WTO’ by ‘Addressing institutional challenges in the new millennium’. The group selected is particularly close to the current institution; it includes no scholar, intellectual, or politician who has voiced substantial and serious criticism.