We can lay the blame for Doha’s delay at lots of doorsteps. But fundamentally, we would hope that if the deal were rich enough, if it improved welfare enough, people would find a way to agree.             Economists know that dismantling barriers to trade makes the world better off:  this

Today's IHT has an interesting letter from Pascal Lamy to the trade ministers.  He includes the following: The pity in all of this is that what is on the table now constitutes greater progress in rolling back farm subsidies and tariffs than anything seen before in global negotiations.

The GATS today does not contain a direct requirement that domestic regulatory measures be the least trade restrictive (Article VI:5 combines this test with a nullification or impairment requirement).  This may be contrasted with Article 2.2 of the TBT Agreement and Article 2.2 of the SPS Agreement.

People have not been shy about assigning blame for the failure of the Doha talks.  The G-6 WTO Members who met in an effort to get things moving were Australia, Brazil, the EU, India, Japan and the U.S.  Most are blaming the U.S., while the U.S.

It appears that the last gasp of hope for some kind of Doha deal this year has expired.  It is curious that the G-8 expressed commitment last week, and then its ministers declined to deliver the goods in Geneva.

I am happy to post the following announcement from Cambridge University Press: The Limits of Leviathan Contract Theory and the Enforcement of International Law Robert E. Scott Paul B. Stephan Much of international law, like much of contract, is enforced not by independent sanctions but rather through cooperative interaction among

This from Mark Stratman, at the suggestion of John Jackson: The WTO General Council has made a decision to derestrict all GATT 1947 documents.  This is an important step towards greater transparency, and greatly reduces some of the confusion about what documents might still be restricted from the GATT days.

Still ploughing on with Biotech! I am struck today by the panel's (excessively) cautious approach to the interpretation of the special and differential treatment obligation in Article 10.1 of the SPS Agreement. The panel concluded that while Members must take the interests of developing countries into account

The well known British jornalist and political commentator, Martin Jacques, has a piece in today's GUARDIAN called 'The death of Doha Signals the Demise of Globalisation'.  He concludes that the deadlock in Doha is final and that it suggests not so much the end of globalisation