Coherence and the WTO

Abstract

Coherence between the WTO and the Bretton Woods Institutions (a formal WTO objective) has achieved some minor goals but has been expensive in terms of direct costs and inefficiencies in policy-making and policy debate. The so-called Integrated Framework has achieved relatively little and aid for trade has yet to be fully established. There is little role for the WTO in development and aid policy other than its traditional job of facilitating trade growth, and so its role in aid-for-trade is unclear. Coherence, especially when interpreted as allowing developing countries to avoid trade liberalization in the name of development, has confused and weakened the Doha Round of WTO negotiations.