WTO trade talks collapse

[Dave A]

I wonder what the effects of this are going to be?

Ministers saw a "new order" take hold of global trade on Wednesday, with emerging economies calling the shots after World Trade Organisation (WTO) plans collapsed in a potentially devastating blow to millions of the world's poor.

Delegates had struggled for nine days to reach consensus on subsidy levels and import tariffs for a new deal under the WTO's Doha Round, which has foundered repeatedly since it was launched seven years ago.
full story from M&G here

[Graeme]

Doha

If Obama gets in the world can probably kiss completing the Doha round goodbye - the Democrats are far more protectionist than the Republicans. It is said that Obama is less likely to pander to his party's protectionist wing than his primary rhetoric suggests. However within days of winning the nomination his tone changed.

But in the end, do we care? What's in it for RSA?

[duncan drennan]

But in the end, do we care? What's in it for RSA?

What is SA's stance in WTO talks?

[Graeme]

Very complex - I am waiting to see expert comment in the financial press.

[Dave A]

I seem to recall we have some pretty good peferential agreements in place already for trade with Europe, and a few other bilateral agreements besides, which makes the issue complicated. SA's position has been to reduce barriers to trade, but the special treatment also gives an advantage in some sectors that could be lost.

More generally, a particularly thorny issue for Doha has been government subsidies for agriculture in Europe and the USA.

[Graeme]

World Trade

Comment in Cremer’s ‘Engineering News‘: ……………”economic policies that are preferred by the developed countries are not necessarily policies that would help developing countries achieve their developmental goals…………………many developed countries advocate the type of economic policies that promote the interests of the developed countries rather than those of developing countries. For example it may seem common sense to say that developing countries should open up to international trade and global capital flows because they would benefit from increased trade and investment.
However, experience shows that openness is not the best policy for developing countries.
Rather, this policy helps the businesses of the developed countries gain more markets for their products.
Developed country competitors would generally be more productive and have better technology than the firms of developing countries.
Therefore opening up to international competition could totally destroy domestic capacity and jobs in developing countries………………the acrimonious discussions in in the World Trade Organisation about opening up domestic markets to international competition in the agricultural sector provides a good measure of the problems with opening up to trade.
The OECD countries are the ones that do not want to open their markets to developing country competition in agriculture. They have developed many sophisticated arguments against opening up to trade in agriculture that they conveniently forget when they advocate trade openness to developing countries…………we should do what developed countries did to become competitive rather than take their advice about how they think we can become competitive.”