MANY of the world’s multilateral organisations have the longevity of nation states. The International Telecommunication Union is older than Germany. The World Intellectual Property Organisation directly descends from a body Victor Hugo helped to establish. The institutions governing global trade, by contrast, last about as long as Spinal Tap drummers.
After 25 years of existence, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) may be hurtling toward the irrelevance that doomed its predecessors. Robert Azevedo, who’s been director-general since 2013, will step down before his term formally ends next year, four people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.