Multilateralism not a ‘single undertaking’

Haass provides three possible new conformations of multilateralism for the 21st century that seem plausible to me: 'regionalism' as in regional trade agreements; 'functional' multilateralism—by which he means 'coalitions of the willing' or the 'critical mass' agreements that have been at the core of my recent work on agricultural trade agreements—and; 'informal' multilateralism comprising executive agreements…

Elaborating the Ag. travesty

According to a report* from ITCSD, developing countries and the EU want to further slow the pace of change where opening markets for products such as sugar, cut flowers, vegetable oils, fruits and juices might threaten some highly profitable deals between of a small group of EU importers and developing country exporters. So much for the…

Lamy’s assessment of Copenhagen

The Director-General of WTO goes on to claim that "…in the end, it is only through a multilateral process that we can achieve results which are legitimate and credible." But this is an argument seems to stand only when propped-up by jargon. Processes? What are they? Agreements to a coherent single-framework for action? Only a weak…

Are the BRICS ready to lead?

His guess? "No, not yet". He points out the BRICS are dominated by one country, China, that is still dependent on foreign demand for its economic strength rather than on its domestic resources.

EU ramps up farm subsidies