The Centre William Rappard, home of the WTO, on the shores of Lake Léman in Geneva, was inaugurated in 1926 to house the International Labour Organization (ILO), which subsequently moved to another location in 1975. The building hosts a number of very interesting works of art celebrating labour, donated to the ILO over the years by trade unions and employee associations. Many of these works were covered up when the building became home to the WTO, as if to erase all links between trade and employment. When the renovation of the building began in 2006, many of these works of art were unveiled and are now on display to visitors. This was not simply an artistic gesture, but a reminder that trade and jobs cannot be separated.

The current crisis has revived the debate on the implications of trade policies for employment. The ILO tells us that there are 28 million more people unemployed around the world today than in 2007, and unemployment has risen to record levels in the industrialized world. Developing countries have also been affected. While the number of people without a job rose by 4.2 million in 2012, only a quarter of those concerned live in developed countries; the rest are in other regions, in particular East Asia, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.