A very interesting set of video interviews with many of the people involved in and during the birth of the WTO have been compiled and put on a youtube channel available here. Prof Gabrielle Marceau initiated this project. As described on the channel,
“This project began as a tribute to Ambassador Paul Trân Van Thinh on the occasion of his 80th birthday. We set out to retrace, through interviews with friends and colleagues, Paul Trân’s exceptional journey. Paul Trân, who served as Ambassador of Europe to the GATT, not only impacted those who worked alongside him, but played an instrumental role in the crucial GATT years that eventually gave birth to the World Trade Organization (WTO). While the individuals interviewed offer rich accounts of Paul Trân’s work and the mark he left on Europe, they also share their thoughts and insights on the global vision that paved the way for today’s WTO.”
I’ve been skimming through several of them and found it very interesting to hear straight from the people involved in negotiations and deals around that time. Due to the large number of them, I haven’t been able to go through all of them, but I did come across some interesting statements. It might not necessarily be new information, but hearing it straight from source does seem to remove any doubts.
Michael Samuels served as Deputy United States Trade Representative and U.S. Ambassador to the GATT in Geneva (1985-89) talks about how the EC were not quite as supportive of the US’s TRIPs views. Interestingly, he mentions that the EC ambassador probably built good relations with “US’s obstacles India and Brazil” during this time. (minutes 8:45 – 12:17)
B.K Zutshi, Indian Ambassador, Permanent Representative to GATT and Uruguay Round Chief negotiator from 1989 to 1994 mentions TRIPS being the main cause of conflict between the north and south countries. I found minutes 6:00 – 13:44 to be the more interesting parts here.
There are several more videos there, many describing how the negotiations took place back then. If any of our readers come across more ‘choice’ pieces, please do share them in the comments section.
Hat tip to the IELP blog.
