The WTO System of Trade Governance : The Stale NGO Debate and the Appropriate Role for Non-State Actors

This Article proposes a restatement of the debate on Non- Governmental Organizations' (NGO) participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Moving away from the traditional emphasis on NGO participation in Geneva, the Article suggests that the discussion should include the broader category of non-state actors and their role in the WTO system of multi-level governance at both the international and the domestic levels. Lessons learned from empirical research on non-state actor participation in the WTO, particularly in the post-Doha period, provide new insights into how the WTO system of trade governance functions and the role non-state actors are increasingly required to play in such governance. The Article asks how does non-state actor participation within the WTO system alter conventional concepts of trade governance and ideas about how the WTO regime governs international trade relations? How are non-state actors (including NGOs) already participating within the WTO system? This Article suggests that the debate on non-state actor participation in the WTO system be reorganized around three questions: (1) What should be the objectives for the WTO's engagement with non-state actors? (2) With what kinds of non-state actors should the WTO engage? (3) Through which structures should the WTO engage non-state actors? This Article goes on to identify a key objective for WTO institutional reform on participation by non-state actors. It recommends that WTO reform efforts targeting greater transparency and integration with non-state actors contribute to the reform of domestic trade policy-making processes in member states. The WTO system ought to facilitate greater participation and consultation with non-state stakeholders at the national level of trade policy-making