WTO and the failure of Seattle

In Seattle, between 30 November and 3 December 1999, the World Trade Organization (WTO) organized its Third Ministerial Conference that was supposed to establish the agenda for the multilateral negotiations under the Millennium Round, but the meeting failed. The failure was due to organizational difficulties and to the complexity of the subject matter. Some of the organizational problems were attributable to unfortunate timing and to specific incidents, but others were of a more structural nature and suggest that the WTO may have to reassess its approach and mode of operation and possibly even to rethink its mission. This communication reviews the organizational difficulties (section 2), briefly discusses the subject matter itself (section 3) and mentions the possible implications of the problems encountered for the future role and mandate of the WTO (section 4).