Non-Governmental Organizations at the World Trade Organization: Cooperation, Competition, or Exclusion

Recent efforts by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), especially environmental groups, to participate in international trade policy-making activities have been met with hostility from the trade community. This article argues that this negative reaction is a mistake. Non-governmental organizations offer the World Trade Organization (WTO) a mechanism by which to \u27connect\u27 to citizens around the world in whose interest trade liberalization initiatives are advance. Imporoved responsiveness and representativeness on the part of the WTO and better understanding of the international trading system on the part of the public would enhance the WTO\u27s legitimacy and strengthen its position as a central element of the emerging structure of international economic governance. Non-governmental organizations offer, moreover, a source of analytic \u27competiton\u27 to governments that promises to fortify the WTO\u27s capacity to regulate in a manner that avoids market failures and to improve the organization\u27s decision-making more generally, further augmenting the WTO\u27s credibility and authoritativeness. The arguments for excluding NGOs from the WTO, particularly the fear that NGO participation in decision-making will result in special interest manipulation of outcomes, are largely misplaced