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About the Book The World Trade Organization (WTO)’s 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13), held in Abu Dhabi on 26 February–2 March 2024, was a stage where moves to reshape the governing body for international trade were played out. Spearheaded by developed countries, these efforts aim at loosening decision-making practices at the WTO in order to more easily expand the organization’s ambit into new areas. Such a push could not only sideline longstanding issues of interest to developing countries but also distort the WTO’s legal architecture of rules and erode its multilateral character. This paper looks at how the attempt to remake the WTO unfolded at MC13, focusing among others on the difficult negotiations to draw up the main outcome document of the conference, and on the contentious issues of investment facilitation and services domestic regulation that were sought to be introduced into the WTO rulebook. The author also contends that this drive at remaking the organization will continue beyond MC13 and could come to have a major bearing on the very role and future of the WTO. ABOUT THE AUTHOR KINDA MOHAMADIEH is a legal advisor and senior researcher with the Third World Network office in Geneva. Her work focuses on WTO processes and negotiations, international investment governance, and issues of corporate legal accountability and business and human rights. She holds a PhD in international law from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, an LLM in international economic and commercial law from the University of Lausanne, and a master in public policy from the University of California at Los Angeles. Contents 1 Minor Outcomes and Major Process Challenges Pressures and oppression faced by civil society organizations Other procedural issues at MC13 2 The Ministerial Outcome Document and the Fight to Expand the Agenda of the WTO 3 Hollow Decision in the Name of “Development” 4 Dispute Settlement Reform in a Stalemate The criticized “informal discussions” on dispute settlement reform The content of the ministerial decision on dispute settlement reform 5 The “Investment Facilitation” Debacle No justifications for claiming the IF Agreement as a developmental agreement The key issue concerns how the WTO rulebook gets expanded 6 The False Story on Services Domestic Regulation The nature of the plurilateral services domestic regulation disciplines Objections to the adoption of these disciplines through GATS schedules of commitments Consultations between the modifying and objecting Members The importance of reviewing the procedural rules and avoiding future abuse of GATS schedules of commitments 7 The Way Forward Post-MC13 in the Context of a Clash of Visions Over the Future of the WTO Endnotes
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