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The Geneva Consensus
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The Geneva Consensus

Making Trade Work for All

Pascal Lamy
Cambridge UP, 2013
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Innovative
  • Overview

Recommendation

Pascal Lamy, former head of the World Trade Organization, makes a fervent case for free trade as a catalyst for solving many social and economic problems, including income inequality, health care access, human rights issues and unemployment. His “Geneva Consensus” principle touts open markets as crucial to integrating developing countries into the global economy. He traces the tortured history of mostly unsuccessful efforts to reform trade rules, including his personal involvement in these struggles. Developed and developing nations’ determined intransigence doesn’t discourage Lamy; he believes that the Doha Round – the latest manifestation of global trade rule-making – can lead to economic equity. getAbstract recommends his inside analysis to multinational corporate executives, policy makers and NGO leaders.

Summary

Globalization Under Pressure

Globalization offers a new model for trade and social progress. Beginning in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall, booming world trade overtook an international community still operating under principles established in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference. Today’s trade struggles spring from an absence of contemporary “global governance.”

Issues in efforts to establish sound governance center on “leadership, efficiency and legitimacy.” The G20, the UN and NGOs form a “triangle of coherence” confronting these challenges. Before anything else, they have to establish core mutual values. Today’s multilateral trading system could serve as a world governance mechanism if those parties involved can reach workable agreements. The World Trade Organization (WTO) can help actualize the “Geneva Consensus,” which seeks to help emerging economies benefit from open markets.

Trade Turbulence

Global trade has exploded thanks to improved communication, transportation and information technology. Production value chains are growing longer and expanding around the world. Influence is shifting: In the 1990s, developed countries’ trade with one...

About the Author

Pascal Lamy served as director-general of the World Trade Organization from 2005 to 2013. From 1999 to 2004, he was the European Union commissioner for trade.

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