WTO’s final agony has lasted too long
Mercifully, the so-called Doha Development Round seems to be coming to an end for the World Trade Organization.
In Germany this week, the G4 countries (United States, European Union, India and Brazil) were unable to settle their differences for long enough to put the latest round of WTO negotiations back on track. It is not a very graceful end mind you. For anyone who has seen Shrek the Third, the frog king’s death scene doesn’t hold a candle to the sheer length of Doha’s final agony.
Since the Cancun Ministerial of 2003, the writing has been on the wall for the WTO. New economic powers like India and Brazil simply weren’t going to accept a one-sided deal. Furthermore, developing countries, now a majority of the WTO's membership, felt that the Doha Development Round should, for once, address some of their concerns. The big players like the European Union and the United States never came to terms with this idea.
Kamal Nath, the Indian trade minister, was quoted as saying that it wasn’t just a question of figures. It was also is a question of attitude. “The U.S. does not realize that the world has changed.” The bullying continued, the inflexibility persisted and the negotiations came to a standstill.
Time is running out for the Doha Development Round. The members have given themselves until December of this year, but they may pull the plug before then. The options are too limited and the political will is no longer there.
Since the Doha Round was launched in 2001, the Council of Canadians has worked to derail this flawed and antidemocratic process. A collapse represents the best scenario for developing countries and for Canada, despite what you will no doubt hear from our trade minister and WTO officials.
The FTAA is dead and the WTO is likely to be paralyzed for years to come. The world has rejected the neo-liberal free trade agenda and its one-size-fits-all set of rules. Sadly, while many countries are choosing to follow a different economic development path, the Canadian government is still leading us down the same dead end street.
— Jean-Yves LeFort, Trade Campaigner, The Council of Canadians
