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The aftermath of Cancun: the Mexican resort was originally known as Kan Kun, ''nest of vipers''. Has the WTO meeting seen it live up to its reputation, or is there now greater hope for a just global settlement?

Article Excerpt
There has been a profound shift in the logic of globalism. A newly assertive US empire has grown weary of multilateral trade-offs. The United Nations is supplanted by the 'coalition of the willing', the World Bank is superseded by bilateral 'development assistance' and export credit agencies, the World Trade Organisation is sidestepped by national subsidies and bilateral trade agreements. The US-EU-Japan axis that stood at the centre of the globalising project has started to fragment. The era of deinstitutionalised globalism, it seems, is upon us.

At the same time, counter-globalism has also undergone a transformation. Campaigns against corporate globalism have always faced the dilemma of whether to seek to reform or overthrow the institutions of globalism. International norms, interstate organisations and transnational corporations are either embraced or rejected as sites for transformation. The debate has now intensified as the dominant powers increasingly seek to work outside multilateral frameworks. Some critics of globalism now rush to the defence of multilateral institutions against naked unilateralism. Others reject the possibility for progressive change from within the institutions of globalism, putting their faith in the capacity of people's movements. Once played out in the relatively narrow circles of NGO lobbyists, mostly from high-income countries, this debate is now deepened and broadened with the increasing involvement of national publics and of Southern NGOs and campaigners.

The recent trajectory of the World Trade Organisation, and current debates about its future, are especially revealing. At the Seattle Ministerial in 1999 the WTO proposed a new 'Millennium Round' of negotiations, extending the WTO's remit into the deregulation of investment flows, service provision, competition policy and government spending. The round was defeated when seventy Southern countries walked out. The WTO response, two...

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