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Issue No. 367 (2026/2)
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COVER:
Whither the WTO?: Challenges confronting developing countries in the World Trade Organization
Multilateralism
under threat at the WTO
By Kinda Mohamadieh
When trade ministers met in March under the auspices of the World
Trade Organization, they faced a US delegation bent on reshaping the
body governing international trade into one where powerful countries
can effectively ride roughshod over the interests of developing nations.
What
the US seeks from ‘reform’ at the WTO
By Goh Chien Yen and Kinda Mohamadieh
In its vision of WTO ‘reform’, the US would have a freer hand to
set the trade body’s agenda at the expense of consensus decision-making.
The
backdoor strategy to adopt plurilateral agreements in the WTO
By Jane Kelsey
When is a WTO agreement not a WTO agreement? Jane Kelsey
considers the case of the Agreement on Electronic Commerce, the latest
instance of the push by a few influential countries to lend the WTO’s
institutional backing to a treaty that has no consensus support from
the membership.
The
fight to save special and differential treatment
By Abhijit Das
Apart from seeking to jettison the multilateral approach, developed
countries in the WTO are also taking aim at the principle of ‘special
and differential treatment’, which entitles developing countries to
certain rights and support measures under the WTO rules. Abhijit
Das explains why such rights must be preserved and why their removal
would undermine equity in the trading system.
MC14
and the negotiations on agriculture: A critical juncture for development
By Ranja Sengupta
MC14 failed to yield any substantive decision concerning trade in
agricultural products, one of the major issues on the WTO negotiating
table. Going forward, developing countries need to ensure past promises
in this area are kept, and resist constraints on their capacity to advance
food security and farming livelihoods.
The
looming spectre of ‘non-violation complaints’
By K.M. Gopakumar
A decades-old understanding at the WTO which protected recourse
to certain policies overriding intellectual property rights has lapsed.
With its expiry, the availability of everything from affordable farm
inputs to life-saving generic medicines is now at risk.
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ECOLOGY
The
human cost of Kenya’s expanding lakes
By Frank Njugi
Due to a complex interplay of geological, climatic and human-induced
factors, the waters of Kenya’s Rift Valley lakes are rising fast,
submerging lands, livelihoods and the people’s sense of security.
HEALTH
& SAFETY
When
care becomes capital
By Christy Hoffman
Without urgent safeguards, financialisation risks locking care
systems into a race to the bottom.
ECONOMICS
A
brief history of global AI governance
By Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini
Chami
The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is
being driven by a handful of dominant countries and big tech companies
with minimal democratic accountability. Flagging the limits and dangers
of this ruleless approach, Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini
Chami call for international cooperation to align AI with the
collective interests of humanity, not corporate profiteering.
WORLD
AFFAIRS
Trump’s
coercive tactics in Latin America evoke era of gunboat diplomacy –
and the rise of anti-imperialism it helped spur
By Tony Wood
Aggressive US intervention in Latin America in the early 20th
century triggered a wave of anti-imperialist fervour in the region.
Might Washington’s present-day muscle-flexing spark a similar upsurge?
In
Cuba, US media only films the darkness
By Michelle Ellner
Michelle Ellner decries US media coverage of Cuba that obscures
more than it reveals.
HUMAN
RIGHTS
Palestinian
students are fighting for their right to education
By Ashley Ver Beek
As the Israeli occupation targets academic institutions, Palestinian
students resist scholasticide while calling for tangible international
solidarity.
WOMEN
Recipes
for memory and connection
By Isàlia McIntyre
A cookbook project highlighting the favourite dishes of victims
of forced disappearances in Mexico and Colombia offers solace and
solidarity to the women searching for their loved ones.
CULTURE
The
Philippines’ brutal history informs Glenn Diaz’s powerful political
novel
By Sam Ryan
In the award-winning Yñiga, a disjointed narrative technique
skilfully reflects the violent and complex history of the Philippines,
writes Sam Ryan, who sees parallels between the colonial legacies
of the island nation and of his native Australia.
Third
World Resurgence Page
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