World Perspectives

Spinning the WTO Wheels

India this week blocked a perfunctory motion at the WTO to move surplus WTO funds from 2021 into 2023. All other WTO members agreed that the funds could be used to cover the organization’s “mandatory and unavoidable expenses.” Reportedly, other WTO members characterized India’s obstinance as reflecting abuse of the consensus-based decision making of the organization. India covers just 2.2 percent of the organization’s funding, a paltry $4.4 million, or 0.0007 percent of its $570 billion in world trade benefits.   Granted, India is not the only member to “abuse” the consensus requirement. The organization lacks an appellate function because the U.S. continues to block it. And the dispute s...

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From WPI Consulting

Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

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