More frequent meetings of ministers and a clearer role for the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) chief in free trade negotiations are needed to inject more dynamism and efficiency into the organisation, a report said.

Remarkably, in an institution which political leaders everywhere claim as their principal vehicle of trade policy development, regular direct, formal, political involvement in the WTO is minimal,” said ‘The Future of the WTO’ report drawn up by a “wise men” group of business leaders and economists.
The 83-page document mixes political and technical recommendations, including on the settlement of disputes, while making a fervent defence of free trade, which it said offered most poorer countries the best route to development, a Reuters report said.
It also had harsh words for a plethora of regional and bilateral trade deals, which have flourished as WTO talks have struggled, saying they often were dictated by political agendas and did little to advance the cause of free trade.
“It (the trend) is often undermining the multilateral system, which is very dangerous,” Peter Sutherland, the chairman of British oil concern BP and former WTO head who chaired the group of authors, said.
Drawn up at the request of WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi, who stands down in August, the report carries no legal weight within the 148-member body and is intended to stimulate debate.
But the renown of the eight-man team, which also includes economist Jagdish Bhagwati and former Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Lafer, will ensure it gets a good hearing, trade officials say.
The WTO, which sets the rules for global trade, has been criticised from both inside and outside the Geneva-based body as being too unwieldy and too prone to paralysis in the face of the competing demands of the major economic groups.
Two of the last four ministerial conferences, normally held once every two years, have ended in embarrassing failure, with developed and developing countries angrily blaming each other.
One way to strengthen links between governments and the trade body would be with a special “consultative” committee of a limited number of members — no more than 30 states — which the WTO’s director-general could summon every three or six months. It would also meet in the run-up to ministerial conferences.
The role of the WTO’s director-general, which has never been clarified, needs to be spelled out to give him more weight in the negotiating process, it added.
And where accord on some aspects of liberalisation deals was proving elusive, because some states were unwilling to go along, the WTO could perhaps relax its consensus rules to let others states push ahead on their own, the report said.