Paving the Way for Consensus

The upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference in Nursultan, Kazakhstan could be a watershed moment for WTO reform. It is an opportunity to show that deadlocks among member states can be overcome and that it is possible to update the WTO’s rulebook and functions. As past experience shows, the success of Ministerial Conferences depends on negotiation management on behalf of the host government and the Secretariat. In this paper, we draw lessons from past WTO Ministerial Conferences and introduce innovations from other multilateral negotiations such as Paris Agreement on Climate Change.