The secretariat of the World Trade Organization unveiled the 30-year-institution’s first-ever strategy, which aims to give direction to its activities amidst growing concerns about the future and finances of the institution.
The strategy paper, unveiled at the organisation’s annual Public Forum, emphasises serving as a forum for dialogue on trade policy and knowledge dissemination. It de-emphasises its traditional role in supporting treaty negotiations and dispute settlement proceedings.
Lean management and stronger service orientation
“We aim to provide an enabling environment for negotiations, deliberations, accessions, and WTO reform, and improve monitoring and transparency services. The aim is to increase our effectiveness and productivity,” the paper says.
“The Secretariat must be ready to support members in ongoing and new negotiations, and to help them implement agreed outcomes.” However, the key headlines of the strategy focus on presenting the institution as a platform for dialogue and external engagement and becoming a knowledge hub.
The strategy is a pet project by its director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Here non-trade policy background used to different management approaches, not least at the World Bank, brought her to seek to inject new approaches to running an institution, a task usually left to trade diplomats. Her more business-like service-orientation brings also new tones to the way the secretariat has communicated about itself.
The strategy also comes amidst growing strains for its budget, inflationary pressures and increasing risk that some members may hold back financing in future.
Warning signs have been coming from countries such as the United Stated or India which in recent years have been seen holding back annual budget talks to push their political agendas.
“A new strategy, planning, and knowledge division is being created,” the 36-page document says. “This division will absorb part of the Knowledge Management Division, which has been disbanded, as well as the Transformation Office – so no new resources are required.”
IT tools
The strategy also announces leaner and more efficient IT-driven management.
“Drawing on the ongoing digital transformation and responding to members’ request for digital innovation, we strive to (…) become the trusted one-stop online gateway for accessing high-quality trade data, analysis, and research, on which members and other stakeholders will rely,” the secretariat announces.
The institution also wants to become an accessible, trusted, and secure hybrid forum (digital and in-person) where members and stakeholders worldwide can confidently and securely discuss, consult, and negotiate trade-related topics,” the document says.
The strategy is already being rolled out. For example, the institution unveiled on the same day a new online portal dedicated to making publicly available documents related to the ‘trade concerns’ raised by members to other members as part of the regular committee work.
The database presents usually hard-to-access data in an easily searchable way on WTO country filings in the council on trade in goods and in the committees on market access, licensing, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade.
More strains to come?
“The mission is to work towards a stronger, more inclusive multilateral trading system,” said Ngozi Okonjo Iweala in presenting the paper.
“Whilst continuing to provide top-class service to members across current of WTO core subjects and functions, we are determined to keep pace with developments, anticipate future and help members to do the same,” said the director-general.
Some changes ahead are bound to be painful for staff.
There is talk of a big personnel-cutting exercise in departments dealing with supporting dispute settlement. This follows on a strong reduction in cases filed by member states following the demise of the appellate body in late 2019.
The appellate body structures themselves have been disbanded, in a sign that the top management is not anticipating their return any time soon.
Speaking at a panel discussion following the unveiling of the paper, Anabel Gonzalez, a former WTO deputy director general and now top Inter-American Development Bank official, appeared to indicate that clouds continue to hang over the future of the secretariat.
“While I find it commendable that the implementation of the strategy will be done with an existing budget, I think it’s important to keep an open mind here as adjustments could be necessary in the future,” Gonzalez said.
Not all member countries appear to want to see the secretariat to “think for itself” as one former official told Borderlex.
Honduran Ambassador to the WTO Dacio Castillo, who has chaired the General Council during the pandemic year 2021 and is seen as a pro-active figure in Geneva has played a facilitator role with member countries in getting the strategy accepted.
