Author: Mark Williams

 

This chapter examines the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a structure of global trade governance and the campaign by civil society actors for greater accountability in the WTO. The chapter argues that the struggle over the accountability of the WTO is embedded in two key debates which have arisen in the context of a globalizing world economy: viz. the impact of globalization on the authority of states; and the expansion of the multilateral trading system. The chapter examines the various types of civil society groups that have engaged with the WTO and the world trading system; the actions undertaken by these groups to advance the accountability of the WTO; and the constituencies served by these civil society initiatives. The chapter argues that civil society organizations have achieved partial success in advancing WTO accountability. The WTO has improved its levels of transparency, developed limited procedures of public consultation, and provided qualified citizen access to its dispute settlement mechanism. However, the intergovernmental status of the WTO precludes the agency from increasing the participation of civil society organisations in global trade governance, thus limiting the degree to which these citizen groups can promote WTO accountability.