Working Paper 22-8: WTO 2025: Constructing an Executive Branch

COMPARING THE ROLE OF THE WTO SECRETARIAT WITH THOSE OF ITS SISTER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS2 The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Executive functions in the World Bank and the IMF are lodged in Boards of Executive Directors, who are on-site, full-time representatives of the membership as a whole, working together with the staffs of the Bank and the Fund. [...] More than being the “chief of the operating staff of the Fund,” the MD is to conduct, under the direction of the Executive Board, the ordinary business of the Fund. [...] Not surprisingly, since both institutions emerged from the Bretton Woods Conference, the President of the World Bank has the same role for the Bank as the MD has for the Fund: “The Executive Directors shall be responsible for the conduct of the general operations of the Bank” and the “President shall be chair of the Executive Directors,” casting any tie-breaking vote if one is needed. [...] The EDs are expected to serve full-time in their positions, applying themselves to the business of the Fund or the Bank, at the call respectively of the MD and the President. [...] The Place of the Director-General in the WTO • The Ministerial Conference shall entrust the operation of the WTO to a newly constituted Consultative Group of 24 (CG24), working within the guidance of the General Council.