New Delhi, June 9 -- The setback to prospects of reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its 14th Ministerial Conference (MC-14) in Yaounde, Cameroon, needs to be seen in a particular context.

WTO members were not able to agree on a structured negotiating agenda for reform. Any multilateral agreement is a mutual exchange of policy space. If we want to trade, we cannot achieve a lot without conceding nothing.

Growing geopolitical fragmentation, declining trust among nations and a shift from consensual to flexible plurilateral approaches are some factors that explain the stasis. Members could not even agree to a ministerial declaration with an anodyne paragraph on the imperative of the WTO. While this is disappointing, it is not u...