The global crisis of 2008–2009 gave firm credence to a commonly held perception that business objectives and society's needs tend to be like the two tracks of a railway line. Looking ahead from any point, they appear to converge in the distance; in reality, they never do.

One always expected that the regulatory framework created and monitored by the state was ostensibly meant to prevent such excesses – but it transpired that the elected representatives of the people were either willing collaborators or silent spectators; they merely watched and, through sheer lethargy or complicity, ended up in accelerating the downslide well beyond the financial sector. The question that continuously haunts us today is whether businesspeople and politicians have learnt any lessons. The well-entrenched conventional wisdom that it is perfectly legal to maximize profits, irrespective of the consequences on others, continues to be the driving force that prompts all actions and steers all policies.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has the unique opportunity to revitalize and rechannellize its approach and put together a new dialogue framework – one that transcends the erstwhile system of one nation disagreeing with another, lobbyists with contrarian narrow interests arguing with each other, and businesspeople solely focused on how they can continue to keep emerging competitors at bay.

Fundamentally, the new dialogue calls for a paradigm shift, with the spotlight radically shifting from ‘what a nation needs’ to ‘what humanity needs’.