STWR - Share The World's Resources

It's a quiet anniversary, the 60th year of the International Monetary Fund and its sister institution, the World Bank. It seems only the protestors who will gather in Washington D.C. for the organizations' annual spring meetings will be calling attention to the birthday of the most powerful financial institutions in the world.

The collapse of negotiations at the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Cancun last weekend is neither surprising nor lamentable. It is mostly a case of perception catching up with reality.

As the IMF and World Bank officials convene for their annual Spring meetings this week amidst Washington's blooming cherry and magnolia blossoms, they will be breathing a sigh of relief. Unlike in 2000, when thousands of angry protesters converged on Washington, or the Prague street demonstrations the following fall that caused them to fold up early, their meetings will take place in relative calm.

This report shows how the EU and US continue to claim they are acting in the interests of poor countries in the ‘development’ round of trade negotiations, and how the reality was very different - with key proposals for the reform of multinational power within the WTO.

This paper argues that there is no sound rationale for the Fund to be involved in development matters, including long-term lending. A genuine reform of the Fund requires a redirection of its activities, and improvements in its policies and operational modalities.

Only days ahead of next week’s make-or-break World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong, where a final push will be made to reach an agreement to liberalize agricultural trade, the FAO today warned that the benefits of trade reform may not reach the poor unless urgent complementary policies and investments are made.