Asian Window

From The Guardian

From The Economist:

In many examinations, 90% is an excellent score, deserving a prize and a handshake from the headmaster. In Geneva this week, only full marks would do, and the world’s trade ministers failed. No matter that they came closer to a deal than anyone should have expected (see article). No matter that they stuck at it for nine days and several nights, in the longest ministerial meeting in the history of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). No matter, too, that this time they parted in stunned disbelief, heads shaking, rather than in acrimony, recrimination and spite, as at Cancún in 2003. They managed “convergence” on 18 of the 20 topics set before them by Pascal Lamy, the WTO’s director-general, but they stumbled on the 19th, a device for protecting farmers in developing countries against surges in imports. They never reached the 20th, cotton. Failed.

You can construct a plausible argument that the collapse of yet another set of talks on the Doha round, which is now coming up to seven years old, is of little importance. While the world’s trade ministers have alternated between talking and not talking to one another about Doha, the world’s businesspeople have carried on regardless: the growth of global commerce has outstripped the hitherto healthy pace of global GDP. Developing countries in particular have continued to open up to imports and foreign investment. You might say that not much was on offer in Geneva anyway: one study put the eventual benefits at maybe $70 billion, a drop in the ocean of the world’s GDP. Global stockmarkets, with so much else on their minds, either didn’t notice or didn’t care. On July 29th, the day the talks broke up, the S&P 500 index rose by 2.3%.

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Hard line at WTO earns Indian praise

From The Washington Post:

After nine days of talking tough at the Geneva global trade meeting, which ended in collapse, chief Indian negotiator Kamal Nath returned to New Delhi on Thursday to a hero’s welcome.

He was congratulated by colleagues at a cabinet meeting for “bravely fighting the nation’s battle.” During an interview, his cellphone beeped constantly with text messages reading “Well done,” “You have made India proud” and “You held your own in Geneva.”

The World Trade Organization talks collapsed Tuesday when developing nations, speaking through Nath, stood firm on safeguard measures that they said were vital to protect the livelihoods of millions of farmers against a likely spike in food imports from rich nations.

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