Trade Talks and the Financial Crisis

The current state of the world economy and the financial crisis makes the successful conclusion of the Doha Round of trade talks all the more unlikely.

The Heads of the G8 Countries are making all the right noises about resisting the draw of protectionism in a retracting market situation and with increasing unemployment at home, but for all this, the result is the same; the Round is not likely to be completed in the present climate and almost certainly not within the year.

While I congratulate Pascal Lamy for his continuous and seemingly untiring efforts to keep moving forward with the Round, I do not believe that either the upcoming G8 or G20 meetings will hasten the conclusion of the Doha talks.

What to do in the Wake of Doha Collapse

The Collapse of the Doha talks in Geneva last week is a shame, it weakens the WTO as an international institution and gives us a worrying view of the international communities intransigence even when perusing things that would benefit all, namely Freer Trade. What will happen when the harder and more devise issue of Climate Change is up for debate?

I am sure Pascal Lamy will attempt to resurrect the Round, but when is another matter, the upcoming US elections will make this all the harder, with both candidates advocating differing positions - negotiations may well be back at square one before they even start.

In the mean time then, I believe that each Country represented at the talks should demonstrate its commitment to Free Trade, by unilaterally putting in place what they would have accepted in Geneva. If India and China, for example, were to open their agricultural industries, even with the contentious ‘safeguard trigger’ in place, trade would still increase and all would benefit.

This I believe is the best way forward; it will demonstrate the international community’s commitment to Free Trade, and make resurrecting the Round easier as everyone’s position will be readily apparent when talks eventually restart.