WTO chief calls for reform of consensus rule amid global trade disruption
The head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) called on Tuesday for reforms to the 30-year-old institution, criticizing its consensus rule that requires unanimous agreement among members to approve global trade deals.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spoke at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, saying, “We need to reform the system, we cannot be complacent. We need to reform some of the ways we do business like our consensus decision-making system which is practiced as unanimity — everyone has to agree — so it really slows down decision making,” News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Okonjo-Iweala also urged the WTO’s 166 members to engage with the United States on its criticisms of the organization, many of which she acknowledged as valid. She described the global trading system as undergoing the biggest disruption in eight decades, but stressed it remains “battered but not broken.”
Highlighting the resilience of the system, Okonjo-Iweala noted that nearly three-quarters of world goods trade continues to operate under WTO rules, despite U.S. tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump. “The fact that almost three-quarters of world goods trade is still going on on WTO terms is amazing,” she said.
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