OWINFS: Another Doha Round Deadline Failure: Why Yesterday’s Solution to Yesterday’s Agenda is No Longer in Demand in Today’s Global Economy
By Our World Is Not for Sale
Most reports on the inability of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to conclude Doha Round negotiations focus on disagreements between China and the United States on “sectorals,” or they focus on emerging resistance to new market access demands from the U.S. But an under-recognized and extremely significant story is the underlying cause of the breakdown: the growing realization that the Doha Round – and the corporate globalization model of the WTO itself – offers no solution to the global employment, food, and financial crises. In fact, the rules embodied within the WTO actually help set the stage for these types of crises. New documents just released on April 21st fail to address these problems, leaving the Doha Round ever farther from a conclusion. Thus, a global agenda of job-led growth and sustainable development necessitates pruning WTO constraints on national policy space.