It has become a clichÈ that we live in an interconnected world, but clichÈ or not, globalization in
its many and complex dimensions is one of the defining facets of our times. To make economic
globalization work smoothly, sovereign countries need a rules-based trading system sustained
with transparency and clarity through multilateral institutions such as the WTO. Since much of
the world is impoverished, rules of global trade must work as effectively for the poor as the rich,
if the system is to be credible. One can hardly overstate how high the stakes are, that it do so.
Multilateralism is truly at a crossroad. Prompted partly by a lack of progress in the WTO
negotiations, a host of bilateral trade negotiations are in progress. Bilateral agreements among
large players lead to further marginalization of excluded low-income countries. In this global
setting, restoring the effectiveness of multilateralism through the WTO is essential. Doing so will
rest in the coming decade both on the substance of its rules and on the transparency and
inclusiveness of the process through which they are achieved. Countries emerging as centers of
global growth, and poor countries large and small, will only buy into a rules-based world trade
system if they are brought into making its decisions. The new rules of the game must be written
jointly by rich, middle-income, and poor nations, not just by a few powerful members.
Most of the worldís poor depend on agriculture for a key part of their livelihoods. The future of
about 350 million small farms and the people employed by them in low- and middle-income
countries around the world depends upon improved access to well-functioning markets. Food
and nutrition security of the poor is much affected by market and trade reforms in agriculture, as
IFPRI research has pointed out. Thus, agriculture is a critical sector in which a rules-based global
trade system must work to the benefit of the poor. Yet, agriculture has long been treated as an
exception to the rules, as a special case left outside the trade-liberalization process. As a result,
extensive subsidies and border protection continue to block opportunities for those poor people
who can best make their livings from farming and value-added farm products. If the poor remain
losers in agricultural trade, then the trade rules adopted cannot be justified and WTO
effectiveness and credibility will be impaired.