WTO chief grasping at straws
You know things are rough for an international organization when it touts the accession of tiny Vanuatu as a significant accomplishment. WTO chief Pascal Lamy did just that today: The chief of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Pascal Lamy, hailed on Monday the impending accession of small Pacific island state Vanuatu as a sign of ...
You know things are rough for an international organization when it touts the accession of tiny Vanuatu as a significant accomplishment. WTO chief Pascal Lamy did just that today:
You know things are rough for an international organization when it touts the accession of tiny Vanuatu as a significant accomplishment. WTO chief Pascal Lamy did just that today:
The chief of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Pascal Lamy, hailed on Monday the impending accession of small Pacific island state Vanuatu as a sign of confidence in the body at a time of turbulence.
Lamy, who said last week that the WTO’s Doha round of negotiations on a new global trade pact was on the edge of failure after 10 years, was speaking after a working group approved terms for Vanuatu to join.
"Vanuatu’s accession to the WTO is a sign of confidence in the organisation and the multilateral trading system at a time of turbulence for the trading round and the WTO," Lamy told a ceremony marking the end of the entry talks.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
More from Foreign Policy

Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.

Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.

It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.