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Info Service on WTO and Trade Issue (Sep26/21) WTO:
Sharp concerns over Secretariat's "activist" role at Public
Forum Geneva, 21 Sep (D. Ravi Kanth) -- As the World Trade Organization's much-publicized Public Forum concluded on 17 September, several members are considering raising sharp concerns at the upcoming WTO's General Council (GC) meeting over the controversial and allegedly biased conduct of the Forum's sessions by the WTO Secretariat, said people familiar with the development. While WTO Director-General Ms. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Secretariat issued overly positive reports and touted global trade in services, they were seemingly not prepared to include several sessions proposed by the developing countries and inter-governmental organizations working on behalf of developing and least-developed country (LDC) interests. The session selection process lacked transparency and the Secretariat inserted its own content outside the standard process, said people familiar with the development. On the first day of the Forum, the DG spoke at length about how services are increasingly driving global trade, creating new opportunities for job creation, economic diversification, and export growth in developing and least-developed countries. She illustrated the interconnectedness of trade in services by pointing to her own refrigerator as an example of how it facilitates her work in the kitchen. She also highlighted how digital technologies and improved connectivity enable firms to develop a range of services across borders, suggesting that services are powering the future of trade. Yet, when a member presented a proposal for discussion at a session entitled "Services beyond commitments: Real access for LDCs & DCs," the proposal was excluded for inexplicable reasons, a person said. The proposal, submitted by a developing country, argued that "while multilateral trade rules and market-opening commitments provide an important foundation, they do not automatically result in real market access or commerce success." It noted that "firms continue to face a range of practical, regulatory and operational barriers that limit their ability to compete internationally." According to the proposal, these barriers include "regulatory fragmentation, payment restrictions, data governance and cybersecurity requirements, recognition of professional qualifications, platform access constraints, procurement-related barriers and trust-deficits affecting suppliers from developing markets." Furthermore, "high trade costs, inefficient procedures, infrastructure gaps and limited interoperability across systems continue to constrain connectivity and integration into global value chains, particularly for small and medium enterprises in vulnerable economies." The proposal concluded that while services are increasingly shaping the future of global trade, "many developing countries and LDCs continue to face practical barriers," and called for experts to discuss the real-world challenges confronting services exporters, particularly in digital and logistics-related sectors. Against this backdrop, the session selection process for the Public Forum 2026 appeared to be a "black box," with the Secretariat inserting its own high-profile content into the programme outside the standard process applied to other participants, said several developing country officials who asked not to be quoted. Secretariat's "activist" role? More disturbingly, some WTO Secretariat staff seemingly performed roles at the panel discussions - such as "moderating and framing reform debates" - that resembled presentations by countries, which is not their job, said a trade official from a developing country. There was also no clarity on how the sessions were structured or how panelists were selected. The trade official noted that there were around 113 sessions this year, built through an open call for proposals, with a deadline of 15 June. However, no shortlist was published, and there was little indication of who within the Secretariat actually decided the panel lists. Meanwhile, it appears the launch of the World Trade Report on the first day of the Forum and the opening plenary were slotted onto the program as WTO-organized content, bypassing the process that everyone else's proposals went through, the person said. During Session 106, "Trade ... make it make sense!", on 17 September, organized directly by the WTO Secretariat, four of the six speakers were from the Secretariat. According to the Forum's session page, the speakers included WTO Secretariat staff Aurelie Schmiedlin, Javier A. Gutierrez, Jan Yves Remy, and Michael Blanga-Gubbay, with Gutierrez and Remy being the moderators. Two speakers at the session were not WTO staff: Dmitry Grozoubinski of the Geneva Trade Platform and Matthew Wilson, Permanent Representative of Barbados. The WTO's own bio for Gutierrez describes him as "a diplomat and trade expert," despite listing his actual job as Counsellor in External Relations at the WTO, said another participant who asked not to be quoted. Meanwhile, the current WTO Chief Economist, Robert Staiger - who assumed the post in January 2026, with a mandate to be "the public face of WTO economics" - has published a personal essay series on the WTO website. His articles include "The value of the WTO," a July piece on "Why MFN matters," and a first-person blog post in June on how post-MC14 reform "should be understood." Somewhat paradoxically, the World Trade Report, titled "A critical juncture for the world trading system," launched at the Public Forum on 15 September, carried Staiger's own framing of the problem while Members are still in mid-negotiation on WTO reform following the MC14's shortcomings in Yaounde, Cameroon earlier this year. "In short, a Secretariat economist is publishing his own diagnosis and prescription, backed by the WTO's full press machine, while the actual negotiation is still ongoing," complained a trade envoy who asked not to be quoted. "While
it doesn't matter whose agenda this ends up favouring - the real issue
is whether the Secretariat should be doing any of it," the envoy
said. The USTR's paper listed "the role of the Secretariat" as one of six items the US wants on the reform agenda - not a one-off gripe, the envoy said. +
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