WTO doha development round

1this is a collection of two articles picked from yesterday's business page. today's editorial "look beyond doha" is a summary of these two ..       

  WTO: doha round bye bye?

• Doha Round is dead, long live multilateral trade negotiations. That seems to be the new mantra in trade lingo.
• What went wrong in the round of talks that promised so much and has delivered so little?
1. all the 153 member countries are outwardly at least professing their commitment to the Doha Round.
2. commitments have, however, been symbolic.
• Doha Round of trade talks having an ambitious development component was launched in November 2001

• AIM:
1. put in place rule-bound multilateral trade,
2. bring about stability and orderliness in world trade
• it would enable poorer countries export more by gaining greater access to developed markets while it was expected that the latter would reduce their various subsidies
• Last year, the G20 countries urged a completion of the Doha Round by the end of this year
• talks have missed many deadlines
• many countries are deep under sovereign debts, the multilateral trading system could be “the only tool to fight poverty, generate employment and create jobs”.

RÔLE of WTO

• The WTO is an insurance policy against protectionism and it did work during the crisis
• multilateral trade agreement governed by rules and procedures will give member countries access to WTO's highly acclaimed disputes settlement body through which the smallest member country can direct the richest to stop trade distorting practices

DOHA AND WTO

• failure to complete the Doha Round would inevitably lead to a dilution of the WTO and the rule of law which the organisation has helped foster in international trade.

2.       The WTO — credible still
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/article2445702.ece

• Doha Round might have stalled — most probably for ever — but the significant contribution of trade negotiators over the years in narrowing down differences cannot be ignored and will most certainly count in future negotiations.
• in several ways the world's major trading nations have been moving away from the spirit of multilateral trade

bilateral vs multilateral

• there has been a strong preference among countries, India included, for bilateral “free trade” agreements, which generally take less time to forge and promise almost immediate results.
• it is not in the best interests of either trade or individual countries that a slew of bilateral pacts should dominate world trade
• these pacts lead to hegemony by the rich countries over the poor as well discrimination and distortion in trade policies.