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Kehoe and Whitten
system. Two factors drove this emphasis on poverty reduction. First, trade ministers launched this
round of multilateral trade negotiations in Doha, Qatar, two months after the attacks of September
11, 2001, a time when there was widespread agreement that poverty creates conditions hostile to
peace. Second, by focusing on poverty alleviation, ministers were able to persuade leaders of
developing countries who were skeptical about the benefits of a new trade round to join the
negotiations.”
The Doha Round is revived, but yet a tremendous amount of works remains for a successful Doha
conclusion. This manuscript focused primarily on the agriculture issues in Doha, issues largely
responsible for Doha’s collapse. Nothing was examined about trade in services, a subject for
future research. The services arena is as complex and controversial as is agriculture. Lamy
(2007d) stated at a London School of Economics conference on October 15, 2007 “services are a
critical component of the Doha Round. There is therefore no doubt that a successful conclusion of
the Doha Round must include satisfactory results on services. This is what we agreed as part of
the Doha mandate.”
In a recent report celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the multilateral trading system
(GATT/WTO at Sixty, 2007), future challenges are recognized “ranging from the short-term
imperative to complete the Doha Round to systemic issues that have been part of GATT/WTO
deliberations for many decades. But the trading system has to look ahead too, and new issues will
emerge. Such issues are likely to include the relationship between environmental challenges such
as global warming and trade, and trade and energy. There are likely to be pressures on the system
to build on work that has already started, such as how to deepen and strengthen the multilateral
rules on trade in services.”
So, how do nations go forward toward the tomorrow’s beyond in an age (Kehoe, 2006) in which
there is the “the ability to exchange good and services globally; to ship products to distant ports
aboard massive container ships; the opportunity to shift production to other countries, often to
least-cost locations?” In such an age of expansive globalization, we are confident that some type
of world-arching trade organization such as the WTO is an imperative. We believe the evidence
presented in this research argues that the world moving onward from the Doha failure; that is,
failure is enabling success.
REFERENCES
Bergsten, C. Fred (2005). “Rescuing the Doha Round.” Foreign Affairs - WTO Special Edition,
Volume 84, Number 7, December 2005.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20051201faessay84702/c-fred-bergsten/rescuing-the-doharound.html
Blustein, Paul (2006). “Failed Trade Talks Usher in Uncertainity,” The Washington Post, July 26,
2006, D1 and D10.
Doha Work Program (2006). (Accessed June 15, 2006.)
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dohatimelines2006_e.htm
Economist Article (2006a). “In the Twilight of Doha,” The Economist, July 29, 2006, 13.
Economist Article (2006b). “Unfinished Business,” The Economist, November 25, 2006, 63-64.
Economist Article (2003). “Special Report - World Trade,” The Economist, March 29, 2003, 63-
64.
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