The Cancun meeting of the WTO takes place at a time when the legitimacy of the institution is under question more than ever before.

The Cancun Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation is likely to be an absolutely crucial one, both for the organisation itself, and for the many developing country members who are already suffering from the impact of various operations of the WTO. Not since the Seattle meeting of December 1999, which famously collapsed amidst street protests and internal dissensions within the WTO, has there been such discord among the member countries before the event, or such unhappiness with the effects of the WTO among the vast majority of people across the world.

September 9, 2003.