ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some issues arising from the expanding mandate, universal membership, and rigid internal governance structures of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It addresses some of the governance issues related to the WTO, and specifically how the expansion of the WTO agenda to include disciplines covering an array of behind-the-border measures coupled with its promise of delivering measurable development benefits to least developed countries. The chapter provides the prescriptive proposals of Sylvia Ostry, Louis Pauly, Michael Trebilcock, and others to streamline and improve the decision-making apparatus of the WTO. Public debate finds some similarities to the accountability, governance, and related debates that have followed the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund since the expansion of their mandates in the 1980s. The chapter concludes by discussing how the WTO can respond to the additional demands being placed upon it, including using the WTO to help enforce core labour standards and international environmental standards.
