Why We Should Still Believe in the WTO
People love to trash the WTO. It’s too slow. It’s broken. Nothing ever gets done. You hear it all the time.
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).
This chapter is written by Kwok Fook Seng, who served as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and WIPO in Geneva from 2011 to 2014. He makes a strong case that we should stop taking the WTO for granted.
Why Singapore Cares So Much About Trade Rules
Let’s start with some context. Singapore’s external trade is about 400% of its GDP. Read that again. Four hundred percent. That means the country trades roughly four times the value of its entire economy every year.
So when people talk about global trade rules, Singapore doesn’t just care a little. It cares a lot. The whole country runs on open trade. A stable, rules-based trading system is not some abstract ideal for Singapore. It’s survival.
That is why Singapore has been one of the most consistent defenders of the multilateral trading system for 50 years. And that system today sits at the WTO.
What the WTO Actually Does (That Nobody Notices)
Here is the thing most people miss about the WTO. They only see the headlines. And the headlines are almost always about the Doha Round, which has been stuck for years. Fair enough. That is frustrating.
But think about what the WTO is actually trying to do. Get 160 countries to agree on legally binding trade rules across nine broad areas with countless sub-issues. Every country has different interests, different industries, different politics. Finding common ground on all of that at the same time is incredibly hard.
Kwok puts it well. The math alone is brutal. You’re not just negotiating with one country. You’re trying to align 160 different positions on dozens of topics at once.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the WTO does a ton of work that never makes the news. Member countries meet in specialized technical bodies every year. They review each other’s trade policies. They troubleshoot problems. They update rules on things like food safety standards.
None of that is exciting. Updating phytosanitary standards will never go viral on social media. But it keeps global trade moving smoothly. And that matters more than most people realize.
The Foundation That Everyone Takes for Granted
Before the WTO, there was the GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. It laid down the basic rules of international trade starting in the late 1940s. Over decades, through multiple rounds of negotiations, countries lowered tariffs and agreed on how to trade with each other fairly.
Those rules still hold up today. They are the reason your phone, your clothes, your food, and basically everything you buy can move across borders without chaos. The WTO enforces those rules.
One of the biggest wins was the Dispute Settlement Understanding from the Uruguay Round in 1994. It set up a system where countries can bring trade disputes to a neutral panel and get a binding ruling. That gives businesses and investors confidence. They know there are rules. They know those rules will be enforced.
Without that, every trade disagreement could turn into a political fight. Instead, there is a process. It works. And the WTO runs it.
The Uber Problem (But for Global Trade)
Kwok uses a great example to explain why new trade deals are so hard. Think about ride-sharing apps like Uber. One day they barely exist, the next day they are worth billions. And regulators are scrambling to figure out what rules should apply.
Younger people see Uber and think, what’s the problem? Traditional taxi drivers and their families see it very differently. Their livelihoods are at stake.
Global trade has the same tension. New ways of doing business pop up faster than rules can keep up. E-commerce, digital services, intellectual property in the internet age. The existing rules were written for a different era. Countries need new agreements, but they can’t agree on what those should look like.
If someone can figure out how to balance those competing interests domestically, says Kwok, they might have a shot at solving the Doha Round too. It’s the same problem at a global scale.
The Real Problem is Not the WTO
Here is where Kwok gets blunt, and I think he’s right. The WTO itself is not broken. The institution is sound. The problem is the members.
There is a vacuum of cooperative leadership at the global level. Big countries can’t agree on a shared direction. And when things go wrong at home, governments find it convenient to blame the WTO instead of their own policy failures. They point at the multilateral trading system and say it’s not working, while they themselves are the ones who made it stop working.
This is not unique to trade. It happens in climate talks, arms control, and every other area of international cooperation. But it stings at the WTO because the stakes for everyday life are so high.
The People Behind the Curtain
One thing Kwok emphasizes is the quality of the people working on trade. Both at the WTO Secretariat and among the negotiators that countries send to Geneva.
He describes it as a privilege to work alongside some of the finest trade experts from every corner of the world. The battles are hard fought, but the solutions they reach are often both creative and complex. People do find agreement. Even countries in a dispute end up accepting the final outcomes from the Dispute Settlement Body.
The WTO has also had strong leadership at the top. From Mike Moore of New Zealand to Pascal Lamy, one of Europe’s top technocrats, to Roberto Azevedo, a highly accomplished Brazilian diplomat. Picking a WTO Director-General puts way more weight on technical skills and leadership ability than on political connections. That matters.
A Deal That Proved the Critics Wrong
In December 2013, WTO members actually sealed a deal. The Agreement on Trade Facilitation. It committed countries to cutting red tape at borders and ports. When fully implemented, it would make trade faster and cheaper, with direct benefits to consumers everywhere.
This was a real achievement. For everyone who said the WTO was dead, here was proof it could still deliver.
And Kwok adds a pointed warning to the critics. Be careful what you wish for. A world without trade rules is a world where your phone and your tablet cost several times what you pay now. Those low prices are not magic. They come from decades of trade agreements that keep goods flowing.
The Loyal Friend You Don’t Appreciate
Kwok ends the chapter with a comparison that really stuck with me. He says the WTO is like that old reliable friend you take for granted. The one who is always there, always dependable, always supporting you even when you’re stubborn and going your own way.
You don’t notice them. You might even resent their advice sometimes. But if they suddenly disappeared, you would feel the loss immediately.
The right thing to do with a friend like that is not to ignore them. It’s to invest in the relationship. Update it. Make it fit for the times. The WTO needs its members to step up and modernize the rules for a new era of trade.
And hopefully, the people in charge of trade policy around the world will do that before they learn the hard way what it feels like to lose a faithful friend.
Why This Chapter Matters
For Singapore, the WTO is not optional. Open trade is the foundation of the country’s entire economy. That is why Singapore has pushed so hard for a strong, fair, rules-based system.
But this chapter is not just about Singapore. It’s about all of us. Every time you buy something online, eat food from another country, or use a device made with parts from ten different nations, you are benefiting from the system the WTO maintains.
It’s easy to complain about what’s not working. It’s harder to appreciate what is. And it takes real effort to fix the parts that need fixing instead of just throwing the whole thing out.
Kwok’s message is simple. Keep the faith. The WTO is worth fighting for.
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