IMPROVING THE CAPACITY OF WTO INSTITUTIONS TO FULFIL THEIR MANDATE

The first part of the paper briefly reviews the increasingly serious shortcomings of the WTO's 'Green room process', and then proceeds to develop the case for creating a formal 'WTO Consultative Board'. As with green room meetings, a WTO Consultative Board would not be empowered to take decisions that bind the general membership. It would consult, discuss, debate, and negotiate, but its output would be limited to recommendations put forward to the entire membership for approval/acceptance. The second part of the paper deals mainly with practicalities and previous experience. There is a long history of tension between formal and informal processes of consultation and negotiation in the GATT and the WTO, which throws useful light on the issues raised in the first part. That history is presented with reference to the Green Room and the Consultative Group of Eighteen. Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved, Oxford University Press.