The WTO and Distribution: Looking for Outcomes or Sticking to Rules

Abstract

Adopting international trade as a suitable and available strategy in moving the current international arrangements toward a more just system of wealth distribution raises the question of the approach which could make international trade more capable in addressing the problem of inequality. Several approaches toward international trade have been put forward and discussed as the right pattern for the WTO in fostering a trade agenda by which each approach tackles a special goal in the trade agenda and a framework is then designed through which an international trade strategy could contribute to the prosperity of people around the world. This paper explores the application of the justice approach and the distributive-oriented policies to international trade and the WTO and studies the possibility of shifting the WTO from its position as a rule-based Organization towards a position which incorporates outcome-oriented and distributive-centered policies within its structure.