The debate on the institutional reform and governance of the WTO has now been underway for over fifteen years. In 1999, only five years after the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the collapse of the Seattle Ministerial Conference provoked intense demands for reform. By 2003, the...

Small and poor developing countries face well-known structural constraints and power asymmetries in their international economic relations Their limited economic weight often produces pessimism about the prospects for such countries to international trade negotiations. For many developing...

Demand for global trade governance that supports development is high. Developing countries have long called for a greater role in governing the global economy and its trading system. As the importance of developing countries in global trade rises and South-South trade among them grows (UNCTAD...

The Eighth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, from 15 to 17 December 2011 offers a critical opportunity to generate fresh perspectives to strengthen the multilateral trading system and bring momentum back to trade talks in ways that secure...

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the multilateral system's key agency charged with intellectual property (IP). This working paper is the first of two documents prepared as background for a political analysis of WIPO's governance and reform debates. This first paper presents...

In 2004, developing countries and civil society groups called for a new Development Agenda at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). After three years of debate, they secured the adoption by WIPO Member States of the 2007 WIPO Development Agenda, comprising 45 recommendations for...

The global trade and investment architecture (GTIA) plays a critical role in shaping the organisation and structure of international commerce - from production and distribution to consumption. Yet, tensions and questions abound - some longstanding, some new - about whose interests it best...

In 1995, the launch of the WTO provoked a chorus of criticism from environmental advocates. After 20 years, how has the trade and environment debate evolved at the WTO and where does it currently stand? Although much has been written over the past two decades on the politics of trade and...

Despite growing alarm about plastic pollution, the production and use of plastics is forecast to continue to expand over coming decades. Efforts on the part of governments, civil society and business to reduce plastics pollution are encouraging signs of awareness and an appetite for engagement...