WHAT WAS BEHIND THE RECENT COLLAPSE OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION TALKS?
The World Trade Organization talks collapsed recently after nearly five years of negotiations. The 149-nation so-called Doha Round negotiations were suspended after major trading powers failed again to agree on cuts to farm subsidies and customs duties. These cuts would have helped the fight against global poverty. Since 2001, the members of the World Trade Organization have debated how to achieve the goals set at a conference in Doha, Qatar. The agenda’s main aim was to bring the benefits of greater trade to the world’s poorest countries. And just last December, at a ministerial conference in Hong Kong, it appeared that differences were being settled between the United States and the European Union to grant more market access to the world’s poorest countries. But then the talks seem to stall in key areas. First, major agricultural exporters, including developing nations, wanted the richer nations such as the United States, the European Union and Japan to open their markets by cutting
