The Doha Blues: Institutional Crisis and Reform in the WTO
Kent Jones
Abstract
The collapse of the Doha Round hangs heavily over an already troubled world economy. Some have concluded that this failure is simply the result of a lack of political will and a pre-occupation with issues such as terrorism. But as this book reveals, the World Trade Organization needs serious structural changes, not just political backbone. It shows for instance that the WTO—now with 153 members—has become increasingly unwieldy in terms of concluding trade agreements and he suggests that countries organize around specific platform positions, a strategy that would make the “holy grail” of consen ... More
The collapse of the Doha Round hangs heavily over an already troubled world economy. Some have concluded that this failure is simply the result of a lack of political will and a pre-occupation with issues such as terrorism. But as this book reveals, the World Trade Organization needs serious structural changes, not just political backbone. It shows for instance that the WTO—now with 153 members—has become increasingly unwieldy in terms of concluding trade agreements and he suggests that countries organize around specific platform positions, a strategy that would make the “holy grail” of consensus once again possible. The book also argues for financial support for poorer countries so that they can participate effectively in negotiations and it contends that the principle of the “single undertaking” (that “there is no agreement until everything is agreed”) has become a serious and perhaps crippling constraint, and must be modified.
Keywords:
Doha Round,
terrorism,
World Trade Organization,
trade agreements,
financial support,
consensus
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2009 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195378825 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195378825.001.0001 |