The World Trade Organization post Nairobi: New Approaches and Architectures

The single undertaking negotiating model, whereby consensus agreement must be reached on all issues on an agenda, has led to a stalemate in the Doha Round negotiations. This has led to some WTO members reaching the conclusion, reflected in paragraph 30 of the 2015 WTO Nairobi Ministerial Declaration, that they ‘do not reaffirm the Doha mandates, as they believe new approaches are necessary to achieve meaningful outcomes in multilateral negotiations.’ This International Trade Working Paper discusses some of these approaches, with particular attention to how these would impact upon small states.