Posts tagged…Doha
Why the Doha Round is failing
Sat, Jul 10 2010The usually well-informed ITSCD Bridges Newsletter tries to explain it with a bit of tabloid alliteration: 'Political Paralysis Poisons WTO Agriculture Talks'. Nah! It's a political choice to put the talks on life-support and it will be a political choice to pull the tubes. It's Doha that's in rigor, not the pollies.
The Doha Round fizzer is an embarrassment. The past sixty years of GATT and WTO…
Read more…Positions diverge on Doha negotiations
Thu, May 27 2010Another cold shower for WTO: last week's attempt in Geneva to sketch out some 'common ground' failed. National negotiating teams were said to be shocked (yes, 'shocked') by the size of the gaps between national positions.
"... nine years into the multilateral trade talks, it remains unclear whether the inviolable ‘red lines’ of prominent WTO members overlap enough to make a Doha Round agreement…
Schubert and the GATT
Thu, Apr 15 2010From a 1984 speech to the Confederation of British Industry by Hugh Corbet, then Director of the London-based Trade Policy Research Centre.
The situation* puts one in mind of the report prepared by a well-known firm of management consultants commissioned to advise on the commercial difficulties of a famous symphony orchestra. Part of the report that was prepared dealt with a concert performance…
Let’s end WTO’s Doha agony
Thu, Apr 01 2010Just in … some old news from Geneva:
"The WTO's week-long "stocktaking" of the Doha Round trade talks ended on Friday with a whimper, not a bang. The much-touted goal of concluding the negotiations toward a global trade deal before the end of 2010 - an objective laid out by heads of state last year - was quietly set aside, as officials acknowledged that political hurdles continue to block…
Elaborating the Ag. travesty
Thu, Jan 14 2010It is difficult to believe that the complex, weak, confusing, rent-preserving, ponderous white-elephant being proposed for an agreement on agriculture in the WTO Doha negotiations could be more bloated or further compromised…but that's exactly what seems to be happening.
According to a report* from ITCSD, developing countries and the EU want to further slow the pace of change where opening…
Multilateralism not a ‘single undertaking’
Wed, Jan 06 2010More commentary—this time from the President of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations—on the significance of the Copenhagen meeting as one of the first signs of whatever-it-turns-out-to-be that follows the pax atlantica
"Multilateralism in the 21st century is, like the century itself, likely to be more fluid and, at times, messy than what we are used to." Extract from Richard Haass in the Global governance in the aughties Sun, Dec 27 2009
First, bodice-ripping as political theory
"We live in an era in which unprecedented globalization and economic interdependence, liberal-democratic hegemony, nanotechnology, robotic warfare, the 'infosphere,' nuclear proliferation and geoengineering solutions to climate change coexist with the return of powerful autocratic-capitalist states, of a new Great Game in Central Asia, of imperialism in…Critical mass agreement vs the Doha Round
Thu, Jul 02 2009
We'll cut to the chase, shall we, in this fourth of my posts on modeling the impact of a 'critical mass' agreement in agriculture? Click on the tags at the left-side or at the bottom of this article to find the earlier posts.
A 'critical mass' agreement among 38 countries that account for 80 percent of world trade in the 30 top-traded agricultural products (all of them food) to eliminate import…
Let’s hope this means more clarity
Fri, Jun 26 2009
Trade ministers in Paris for the June OECD meetings are looking for Lamy's 'second track' to a Doha deal.
"U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk called for a new approach to the Doha talks, involving direct negotiations with key trading partners as the traditional multilateral format was not working…'We think getting more clarity around that ['exactly what the U.S. would gain'] may be the key to…Two tracks out of the Doha wasteland?
Thu, May 28 2009
Pascal Lamy wants to stir up more action in the WTO's Doha negotiations —at least its appearance—by opening up a 'second front' for the exchanges. One group will battle on to refine the technical rules and one will start a 'show and tell' exploration of the implementation of the rules.
"My own sense is that there is scope to work on these two areas along two simultaneous tracks. One would see…Where will Kirk take the Doha entreprise?
Wed, Apr 15 2009
Australia's Trade Minister, Simon Crean, is doggedly faithful to the Doha round. He has recently visited Ron Kirk, the new US Trade representative. No doubt, to gee him up.
But the peak United States industry groups have it right in their letter to the new US President. There cannot be an ambitious outcome in WTO negotiations unless there is substantial degree reciprocity from those developing…
Can the G20 get Doha done?
Fri, Mar 20 2009
The EC Commissioner for Trade, Catherine Ashton, gave a talk in the past couple of days to the Carnegie Endowment in Washington in which she urged, among other things, a G20 commitment to the quick resumption and completion of the Doha WTO negotiations.
"To truly deliver on our G20 commitment, we need to turn the rhetoric into reality and complete the Doha Round of world trade talks. This…
