Will the World Trade Organization Enjoy a Bright Future?
Authors: Gary Hufbauer & Jeffrey Schott
This policy brief, which is divided into four sections, outlines the difficult negotiations involved in the Doha Development Round. Although not the first multilateral negotiation to collapse due to disputes and tactical blunders, alternative measures will need to be taken for progress to be made for the future.
The authors propose a "grand bargain" solution. The plan couples a significant harvest from the Doha agenda, however relies greatly on WTO members willing to take challenging, yet positive, step forwards. The harvest should start—but not stop—with agreements that create minimal commercial pain for any member, but deliver widespread gains. Five parts of the agenda will provide benefits: trade facilitation, Duty-Free-Quota-Free treatment of imports from least developed countries, phase out of agricultural export subsidies, discipline of farm export controls and reforms to dispute settlement.
The other side of the grand bargain is approval from the WTO membership for like-minded countries to negotiate deals between themselves. Five topics should be considered for future plurilateral talks, as part of this grand bargain that is to begin in 2013: services liberalization, currency undervaluation, climate and energy, zero-for-zero tariffs paired with disciplines on non-tariff barriers and state-owned enterprises.
The authors propose a "grand bargain" solution. The plan couples a significant harvest from the Doha agenda, however relies greatly on WTO members willing to take challenging, yet positive, step forwards. The harvest should start—but not stop—with agreements that create minimal commercial pain for any member, but deliver widespread gains. Five parts of the agenda will provide benefits: trade facilitation, Duty-Free-Quota-Free treatment of imports from least developed countries, phase out of agricultural export subsidies, discipline of farm export controls and reforms to dispute settlement.
The other side of the grand bargain is approval from the WTO membership for like-minded countries to negotiate deals between themselves. Five topics should be considered for future plurilateral talks, as part of this grand bargain that is to begin in 2013: services liberalization, currency undervaluation, climate and energy, zero-for-zero tariffs paired with disciplines on non-tariff barriers and state-owned enterprises.
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