Singapore and the Birth of the WTO
A Singaporean diplomat walks into a room full of veteran trade negotiators, knows almost nothing about trade law, and somehow ends up chairing the first meeting of a brand new global organization. That’s this chapter in a nutshell.
This is part of my retelling of “50 Years of Singapore and the United Nations” (Tommy Koh, Li Lin Chang, Joanna Koh, 2015, ISBN: 978-9814713030).
Chapter 10 is written by K. Kesavapany, who served as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. He tells the story of how the World Trade Organization was born, how Singapore ended up right at the center of it, and how a teenage American vandal almost ruined everything.
Starting From Zero in Geneva
In December 1991, Kesavapany arrived in Geneva as Singapore’s Ambassador to GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade). GATT was the old system for managing global trade before the WTO replaced it.
Here’s the thing. He had zero experience in trade diplomacy. None. He walked into a world where some ambassadors had spent their entire careers doing this stuff. He had to learn fast.
But he had a solid team. People like Margaret Liang, Tan Yee Woan, Ng Bee Kim, and several others. Within a few months, the senior ambassadors noticed him. He got appointed Chairman of the Budget Committee in 1992 and Chairman of the Banana Panel in 1993. Yes, there was a Banana Panel. Trade negotiations get weirdly specific.
The Uruguay Round Was Stuck
When Kesavapany arrived, the big story in Geneva was the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. This thing started in 1986 and it just would not end.
The problem was simple. Global trade was basically run by four powers: the US, the European Union, Japan, and Canada. They called them the Quads. These four, plus a few big countries like Brazil and India, made all the real decisions. Small countries? They were basically furniture in the room.
The old GATT Director-General, Arthur Dunkel, gave up and left. Peter Sutherland, a former Irish minister, took over. And Sutherland did something smart. Instead of waiting for ambassadors to sort things out (they weren’t), he went straight to the ministers in Washington and Brussels. He picked up the phone, flew to capitals, and dealt with the decision-makers directly.
It worked. The sticking points got narrowed down to four or five issues. Sutherland then pulled eight ambassadors into his office to hammer out the final solutions. Kesavapany was one of those eight, representing the ASEAN countries. The deal got done.
From Paper Agreement to Real Organization
With the negotiations wrapped up, the next step was a big signing ceremony in Marrakesh, Morocco. And guess who got picked to chair the Implementation Committee? Kesavapany.
This was not a fun job. Every single one of the 150 member countries had to be brought on board. Every country had its own concerns and demands. The system was more democratic than old GATT, which was great in theory. In practice, it meant things moved painfully slow.
On top of that, NGOs were watching every move. They couldn’t sit in the meetings directly, but they lobbied hard through their own governments.
Kesavapany credits a GATT staffer named Arif Hussein for guiding him through the process. And apparently he handled it so smoothly that a well-known NGO critic named Raghavan told him: “You have done it like a thief in the night!” Coming from one of the loudest critics of the whole system, Kesavapany took that as a compliment.
On January 1, 1995, the WTO officially came into existence. Big ceremony in Morocco. Lots of hope. The idea was that this new body would promote fairness through global trade.
First Chairman of the WTO
Back in Geneva after Marrakesh, the first meeting of the WTO General Council happened. And at that meeting, Kesavapany was chosen unanimously as the first Chairman of the WTO General Council.
Let that sink in. The very first chairman of a major global organization. Not someone from the US or Europe. A Singaporean. As Kesavapany puts it, this was less about him personally and more about Singapore’s reputation as a serious trading nation.
Picking the New Boss
Sutherland decided to leave after getting the WTO up and running. Kesavapany was sorry to see him go. They had built a good working relationship.
Now Kesavapany had another task: finding a replacement. As chairman, the job of managing that process fell on him. After a lot of consultations, the job went to Renato Ruggiero, a former Italian trade minister.
Ruggiero was a nice guy. But he didn’t have Sutherland’s force of personality. The ambassadors basically took back control. Ruggiero once said something that perfectly captures the frustration: “When I visit the capitals, I am received like a King. Here, I have to get the permission of the Ambassadors to even go to the toilet.”
That line is hilarious and sad at the same time.
Singapore Gets Picked to Host the First Big Meeting
The WTO agreement required regular ministerial conferences. The members decided these would alternate between Geneva and member countries to give the WTO more visibility worldwide.
When Kesavapany ran consultations on where to hold the very first conference outside Geneva, the unanimous choice was Singapore. Again, a sign of respect.
But back home in Singapore, the reaction was mixed. Joy and panic. This would be the biggest international event Singapore had hosted since a Commonwealth meeting in 1971. The planned venue, Suntec City, was literally still being built.
And then there was the NGO problem. Singapore had always had an awkward relationship with Western NGOs, especially around issues like press freedom. Hosting hundreds of activist groups was going to be… interesting. But after internal discussions, Singapore said yes.
The Michael Fay Problem
This is the part of the story that gets wild.
Everything was on track. The “Road to Singapore” was the slogan. Agendas were being drafted. And then a teenage American kid named Michael Fay got caught vandalizing cars in Singapore. He was sentenced under Singapore law, which included caning.
America lost its mind.
The pressure on Singapore to change the sentence was intense. And one of the loudest voices was Mickey Kantor, the United States Trade Representative. Kantor took it personally. He declared that the WTO ministerial conference in Singapore would happen “over his dead body.”
Think about that. The top US trade official tried to kill a global trade conference because of a vandalism case.
The US Ambassador in Geneva, Booth Gardner, tried to argue that these were two separate issues. Caning policy and trade conferences have nothing to do with each other. But Kantor wouldn’t budge. And he got quiet support from Sir Leon Brittan, the EU Trade Commissioner, who suggested a compromise: hold the first conference in Geneva, then the second one in Singapore.
Kesavapany held firm. The council had already decided. Singapore it was.
A Friend’s Gift
The standoff dragged on for months. Finally, it came down to the last council meeting of the year. A formal vote had to happen.
Kesavapany told Ambassador Gardner he was going to table the motion. He warned him bluntly: the US was going to be the “odd man out” if they blocked it.
Gardner told him to go ahead.
When the vote happened, every other country approved by acclamation. Gardner simply looked the other way and let the motion pass. His deputy rushed up to argue with him, but it was too late. Done.
Kesavapany calls Gardner’s gesture “a gift to a friend for which I will forever be grateful.” It’s a small moment, but it shows how personal relationships can matter even in big institutional fights.
The Conference Almost Failed Anyway
With Singapore confirmed as the host, Kesavapany’s one-year term as chairman ended. He chose not to continue for a second year even though people suggested he should. He didn’t want to set a bad precedent. His friend William Rossier, the Swiss Ambassador, took over.
Meanwhile, the agenda for the conference became a battle zone. Rich countries wanted to add new topics like environmental standards and labor standards. Developing countries, led by India, Egypt, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Kenya, said no way. They wanted the old promises fulfilled first before taking on new obligations.
Nobody could agree. By the time the conference started, there was no agreed text. Singapore’s own government was not happy about hosting a conference that might collapse.
Saved by Malaysia
Here’s the twist nobody saw coming.
The conference was heading toward failure. Delegations were giving up. A “failed” first ministerial conference would have been a terrible look for the brand new WTO.
Then Rafidah Aziz, Malaysia’s trade minister, spoke up. She was known for being bold and outspoken. She said there was no harm in “discussing” the four controversial issues (trade and investment, competition policy, government procurement transparency, and trade facilitation). The key word: discussing. Not committing to anything. Just talking about them.
This gave everyone just enough room to craft a final statement. On December 13, 1996, the conference adopted a ministerial declaration. It wasn’t a total victory for anyone. But it wasn’t a failure either.
Those four topics became known as “the Singapore Issues.” They would haunt WTO negotiations for years to come.
Singapore’s Lasting Mark
As a final gesture, when the delegations returned to Geneva, Kesavapany offered the logo designed for the Singapore conference to be used as the official WTO logo. The offer was accepted.
So every time you see the WTO logo, that’s a piece of Singapore history right there.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is a personal account from someone who was literally in the room when the WTO was born. Kesavapany went from knowing nothing about trade diplomacy to chairing the first meeting of a major global organization. That alone is a pretty incredible story.
But the bigger picture is about how small countries operate. Singapore didn’t have the economic weight of the US or the EU. It couldn’t bully anyone. What it had was reputation, credibility, and people who could work a room. That was enough to earn the right to chair the WTO, host its first big event, and even contribute its logo.
The Michael Fay drama is a reminder of how messy international relations can get. A vandalism case in Singapore almost derailed a global trade conference. The connections between things that seem totally unrelated can be surprising.
And the fact that Malaysia’s trade minister saved the day at a conference in Singapore? That’s the kind of irony you can’t make up.
About the Author
K. Kesavapany served as Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore from 2002 to 2012. Before that, he was Singapore’s High Commissioner to Malaysia and Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. He was elected as the first Chairman of the WTO General Council in January 1995. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Malaya and a Master of Arts from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He also served as Singapore’s Non-Resident Ambassador to Jordan.