WTO Stumbles Again on Doha Round

World Trade Organization members missed a July 31 deadline for completing a work program aimed at restarting the long-running Doha Round negotiations. Some observers say progress is still possible at the WTO’s next ministerial meeting in Kenya this December, but others say that will only happen if the scope of the deal is narrowed.

There had been some hope that a December 2013 agreement on trade facilitation, agriculture and developing country issues could revive the moribund talks, which stalled years ago over disagreements on whether and how to further liberalize global trade in agricultural products, industrial goods and services. Instead, observers are increasingly coming to the conclusion that comprehensive, multilateral deals like the Doha Round and those that preceded it are being supplanted by plurilateral deals that are more limited in scope and participation, such as the Trade Facilitation Agreement and pacts currently under discussion involving information technology products, environmental goods, and services. Many WTO members have also placed more emphasis on bilateral and regional free trade agreements...

This has been excerpted from 13 August 2015 article posted on the Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report.