Right Back Where We Started From (or Are We?)

There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the state of the Doha round negotiations. A formula has been found to keep the ball rolling but at this stage it is impossible to predict towards what direction. There is lack of leadership to conclude a round. At the same time, the round was poorly designed from day one. The emerging dilemma for trading nations should be whether the round (either as originally planned, or a ‘light’ version of the original agenda) with its problems should be concluded, or whether they should be looking to start afresh. The better arguments are probably with the first option, especially since, if they opted for the alternative, this would be the first time in the world trade history that a round failed to conclude; to make it worse, this would also be the first time a round was supposed to primarily address development issues. Trading nations would be sending the world the wrong message if they were to fail in their development-oriented endeavour, when they have repeatedly succeeded in the past when negotiating the conventional trade agenda