The unravelling trade consensus
An much better account of the real, secular challenges facing the WTO than Larry Summers' jumbled column (see the Sidebar) can be found in Simon Evenett's dissection of the failure of the Doha Round, written almost a year ago. I think Simon has set the bar too high, but his call—presaging that of the Warwick Commission—for a period of reflection and a new start for the WTO is and intriguing account; accurate and carefully-argued."The EU and US pursued agricultural trade negotiating strategies that were not politically viable in their trading partners and their demands for tariff cuts on industrial products (driven up by the extent of unilateral reform in developing countries) could not be reconciled with some of the development-related princi- ples adopted for this Round. Finally, what was on the negotiating table was small compared to other developments in the world economy, making the cost of saying "no" easier and poten- tially reducing the attention spent on concluding the Doha Round in the first place." from Reciprocity and the Doha Round Impasse by Simon Evenett
Posted on 08/26 at 10:04 PM.
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