The WTO's "Political Problem"
Alan Beattie of the FT assesses the Doha impasse this way:It’s not the global mechanisms that are wonky. It’s the weakness of the national governments pulling the levers. This would be as true of a plurilateral trade deal as of a multilateral, of course. There is no technocratic solution to the Doha round. It’s a political problem.That sounds about right to me. No doubt there are many WTO "governance" problems as well, but for the most part it's up to national governments to decide what they want from trade agreements and how seriously they want it. Right now, there is a lot of disagreement on the former, and with regard to the latter there are other issues that seem to be a higher priority.ADDED: The other thing that occurs to me, speaking of politics, is that here in the U.S., there seem to more groups against a Doha agreement than for it, and the intensity of the opposition is greater than the support of the proponents.So where does that leave us in terms of the exit strategies Tomer discussed? I am torn between two extremes: cut whatever deal you can versus abandon the round and start fresh. Deep down, I think I prefer a radical overhaul, but I fear that it is not achievable right now, so it could be a mistake to try.