Good afternoon.
Thank you, Ms. Hembroff, for coming to testify before our committee.
I listened to your presentation with great interest. It focused mostly on the attempts to reinvigorate the WTO, but unfortunately I didn't hear much about the why.
I believe you said that the efforts to reinvigorate the WTO are primarily motivated by the impasses caused by U.S. inaction. We could even bring up the 2006 impasses. That was the year when the Doha Round talks failed and were followed by protests, particularly in Seattle. The WTO never fully recovered from that challenge and could never re-inspire efforts to hold new rounds so it could start over.
My question is somewhat related to that. I have no problem with reinvigorating the organization, but why? Everyone agrees that there is a need for an institution that regulates trade globally. The principles and rules of the World Trade Organization, which emerged from the Marrakesh agreement, are very different from those that the 1947 Havana Charter, for example, would have had. There are a number of ways to regulate trade globally. There are several positions and approaches.
Is there a willingness to review and reform the organization's basic principles as well, before thinking of ways of implementing them?