Summary: Member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) failed to meet their goal of launching a new round of multilateral trade negotiations at their biennial ministerial conference last December in Seattle. Although a combination of factors led to the impasse, two themes emerged. First, there was a lack of agreement on many issues among major trading partners and between developed and many developing countries on the eve of the conference. The sensitivity and complexity of the issues to be discussed led to disagreements over the scope of the negotiations. Second, the Seattle negotiation process had inherent difficulties. For example, the document used as the basis for negotiations was a poor starting point for reaching consensus. Also, the negotiating process was hampered by the newness of the WTO leadership team and the challenge of accommodating the needs and interests of a large and increasingly diverse WTO membership. The following lessons can be learned: Efforts to launch a new round of negotiations may have been premature. Ministerial conferences are more likely to succeed if they address only a handful of politically difficult decisions and consensus is reached on most issues beforehand. WTO needs to find ways to address the institutional challenges posed by the increase in the number and the diversity of its members. Holding high-profile WTO meetings in countries that are major trading partners, such as the United States and the European Union, may pose difficulties.
