Doha Round collapses

As the maniacal slaughter and calculated destruction goes on by Israel/US in Lebanon, there's lots of reporting in the business press now on the collapse of the Doha Round after an 'emergency meeting' of the six major negotiating parties... i.e. the representatives of India, Brazil, US, EU, Japan, and Australia. Here is a pretty matter-of-fact report from the Financial Times, with the usual ideological line of course, and another pretty OK report from the Grauniad.

This was after the HK Ministerial in December 2005, of course, which ended in what was more-or-less a failure, the Doha Round being on a 'lifeline' after that.

By all accounts, it's one of the central contradictions of the 'free trade' doctrine that caused the collapse. According to the FT:

"The US continued to argue for big cuts in farm import tariffs to open up markets for its farmers, a demand fiercely rejected by the European Union, Japan and India, who said America had first to go further in offering to cut agricultural subsidies."

I.e. 'Free trade' is OK for you out there, but WE would never subject ourselves to that... WE need a big state to protect our interests and underwrite our profiteering. Nothing new, of course, and one could see something like this coming from the very concept of something like the WTO. But a pretty big incident nonetheless.

So the situation now isn't that this doctrine and ideology is dead, but probably that its vanguard will resort to different tactics... most likely bi-lateral and regional trade agreements. There  were already words to this effect by a French representative at the G6 meeting... anyway, check it out, and keep a closer eye on events closer to home as regional and bi-lateral trade agreements become more popular.