UNDP Report: Slow Economic Institutional Reform

2.1.2 Sectoral Reforms - Some Examples

- The Crisis of the World Trade Organization (WTO)

The approval of all WTO member countries is sought on specific issues, and that policies agreed by member countries are adopted internationally. It is therefore possible to observe how the nature of such discussions impacts the foundation of the organization itself. If trade agreements move away from a consensus-based decision-making structure, this might help deliver agreements in a more "efficient" way, albeit potentially posing "real risks to the organization's legitimacy."

The issue with initiatives like the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) is that they create specific interests for a small number of countries, and thus these countries appear to be making decisions on behalf of all WTO members that do not necessarily seek consensus. This has caused several Asian region countries to break away and form "new" partnerships and trade agreements between themselves, like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

- Climate Change

In Paris on December 2015, the UN Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) will conclude a global agreement on climate change and set the stage for the post-Kyoto negotiations. (The Kyoto Protocol – brought into force in 2005 – remains the most important climate change agreement to date.)

The aim of the UNFCCC this year is to announce an agreement "with legal force" that is "applicable to all." The 2015 first draft outlines the debate around what parties understand to be the "common but differentiated responsibilities." It also summarizes the contrasting targets for developing and developed countries, and the financial "burdens" that each country should bear, and countries have been asked to start submitting their pledges for hard targets.

Countries are now beginning to enter into bilateral agreements on climate change, like the 2014 agreement by China and the U.S., although the deal has been criticized for not setting ambitious enough targets. It is an open question whether this plurilateral trend will be ultimately helpful or create confusion in the same way that it has done in the WTO.

- The Arms Trade Treaty

An interesting case has emerged from the 2014 international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), making it illegal to sell or transport weapons, munitions and related items to countries that are knowingly committing or facilitating genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and serious human rights violations.

The ATT is the result of a global campaign called the "Control Arms Campaign", initiated in 2003 by organizations around the world and developed in three main stages: gain support from one country per region that would champion the ATT, achieve UN advocacy and gain recognition at regional and global meetings, and lastly, establish a formal timeline for treaty negotiations at the UN, supported by intensive campaigning at local and regional levels.

In less than two years, 130 states have signed the treaty. This decade-long campaign underlines how a bottom-up process can build international consensus towards the achievement of a formal treaty.