WTO members agree on global deal for first time

For the first time in its 18-year history, the World Trade Organisation’s 159 members managed to agree on something last Saturday.

It was a relatively modest package to help businesses to get their products across borders more easily. For the sake of balance, it contained concessions to the developing world: help for poor countries to meet the new rules; a promise to prioritise a rewriting of the WTO rules on agriculture to better cover government food security programmes; and pledges to do more to help poor economies gain access for their exports.

The importance of what was done in Bali lays in the symbolism. At a time when many advanced economies are focused on doing trade deals elsewhere, the WTO was reasserting itself.

"In recent weeks the WTO has come alive," said Roberto Azevedo, the Brazilian who took over its leadership in September. There are at least two big reasons for that.

The first is competition. As much as anything, the deal in Bali came out of the fear among many big emerging economies that they were being left behind. For the world's poorest economies and important emerging stars such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia and South Africa, the WTO represents the best hope of having a voice.

The second reason behind the WTO’s potential rebirth is the power of the individual. The real hero of Bali was Azevêdo.

He has brought new energy and discipline to the WTO. But he has also sought to break down historical suspicions within the WTO that the real business was still done in clubby backroom meetings among major players such as the EU and US. The question now is whether Mr Azevêdo can take it to the next level. – (Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2013)