Clovis Rossi: Baptism by Fire Set for December

05/08/2013 - 08h13

The new director general of the WTO (World Trade Organization), the Brazilian Roberto Azevêdo, will face a baptism by fire this December, three months after assuming the position, at the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference, scheduled in Bali, Indonesia.

Ministerial Conferences are the supreme authority from WTO which makes each one of them a colossal event and a puzzle almost impossible to manage.

Its relevance is simple to explain: the conference must produce a document with a consensus among the 159 member countries, from giants like China to the poorest countries such as Paraguay and deal with a handful of non-governmental organizations that make much noise on its halls, with inevitable repercussions among the delegates.

On top of this, the WTO takes care of almost everything the world markets within its borders, from aircraft to bolts, and agriculture as well as services.

If each ministerial conference is such spectacle, the Bali is a particularly relevant one because the world "is approaching 20 years of stagnation at the 'front' of commercial negotiations", as Azevêdo pointed out in his candidacy speech, in February.

Bernardo Mello Franco/Folhapress

Brazilian Ambassador Roberto Azevêdo celebrates with his wife after being elected the new Director-General of the WTO

Remembering: WTO replaced the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) in 1995, shortly after ending the so-called Uruguay Round, the most comprehensive trade liberalization package approved to this day.

Since 1995, all WTO was able to do was launch in 2001, the Doha Round, which would bring down protectionist walls remaining from the Uruguay Round. Doha should be completed in five years, but it has been 12, and nothing has happened.

That is why, within the WTO, qualified employees say the new DG (as the director-general is called in the peculiar language spoken in the big house near Lake Geneva which hosts the organization) will have to upgrade the system or see it wither.

Of course Bali conference will not unlock Doha. But it is important, as Azevêdo pointed out that "very tangible material gains" in Bali "will reinforce our confidence that, in the WTO, we can still talk to each other in a constructive and productive way."

What, exactly, are "very tangible material gains" is open to debate when Azevêdo takes over as the new WTO head.

The major challenge, in practice, will be to demonstrate that the WTO is not just the sheriff of global trade, ensuring the correct application of existing standards. Caring for the organization's assets is relevant, of course, but it's more important to look forward and unlock the negotiation.

Especially when it is in the horizon the negotiation between the two trade giants (U.S. and EU) in a trade agreement that, if implemented, would turn the WTO on the brink of irrelevance.

As Herminio Blanco, the candidate defeated by Azevêdo, says "innovations in the rules to eliminate obstacles in the trade between the United States and Europe are well ahead and will overcome, handily, the rules established by WTO 20 years ago."

Translated by SIMONE PALMA

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