The World Trade Organization's director general, Roberto Azevedo, has called for an urgent shakeup of his institution. Last week, he declared the WTO to be in "the most serious situation [it] has ever faced," and now he is convening crisis talks with member countries.
One of the main reform proposals, reportedly advocated by the United States and the European Union, is to move away from consensus-based decision-making — one of the WTO's founding principles. That might boost efficiency, but it also could jeopardize one of the WTO's greatest assets: its legitimacy.
The current impetus for reform is driven by the desire to bring global trade negotiations back to the WTO. With multilateral talks floundering — the WTO's Doha Round talks stalled again this summer as India blocked implementation of the "Bali Package," the modest agreement reached at last year's ministerial conference — some of the WTO's largest members, notably the U.S. and EU, are pursuing bilateral and regional trade agreements.