The challenges to the World Trade Organization (WTO) are so numerous that this powerful international organization may be in danger of losing its authority and legitimacy as the arbiter of trade disputes among the world’s major trading nations, warns Claude E. Barfield. Barfield is the director of Trade Policy Studies at AEI. In his latest book, Free Trade, Sovereignty, and Democracy: The Future of the World Trade Organization (AEI Press, October 2001), he addresses a broad range of issues critical to the survival of the WTO.

The WTO has come under ferocious attack from both ends of the political spectrum: on the one hand, by critics of globalization who participated in the violent protests during the 1999 meetings in Seattle, and on the other hand, by nationalists who fear that the WTO will undermine democratic governance in member states.

In the first part of the book, Barfield explores the flaws of the WTO constitutional structure--particularly, the troubling imbalance between the WTO’s consensus-plagued rule-making body and its highly efficient dispute settlement system, which is creating new rights and obligations for member states. The study also analyzes the mounting demands from corporations on the Right and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on the Left--organizations such as Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and Friends of the Earth--for more direct participation in the rule-making and judicial functions of the WTO.

In the final part of the book, Barfield proposes constitutional and political reforms that would move the WTO away from the highly legalistic dispute settlement system by introducing more diplomatic solutions through increased mediation and arbitration. While firmly opposing demands by some NGOs for a coequal status with governments, the author recommends changes that would introduce greater transparency and consultation. Barfield further suggests a blocking mechanism to veto WTO panel decisions when a substantial minority of WTO members disagrees with those decisions. Specific recommendations also include a greater diversity in the composition of WTO panels, a regular system of consultation with outside experts and interests groups, and the publication of all WTO working documents. Finally, in order to address the important issue of democratic legitimacy domestically, Barfield calls for the creation of a permanent joint congressional committee and a bipartisan commission to report on the implications of WTO rules, and dispute settlement decisions on U.S. laws and regulations.

Free Trade, Sovereignty, Democracy:  The Future of the World Trade Organization is the definitive guide to understanding how the WTO operates and the nature of its flaws.