The Doha round of world trade negotiations was supposed to lift many millions out of poverty. It looks unlikely to do so
Launched in a spirit of global solidarity two months after the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, the Doha round of global trade talks has always been billed as being about more than just trade. Its official title is the “Doha Development Agenda”. Its purpose, as Tony Blair recently put it, is “to create the conditions in which millions of people will have a chance to escape poverty.”
Such lofty aspirations are sure to be given voice often in Hong Kong this week, when the world's trade ministers meet with the aim of reviving the flagging negotiations. Whether the Doha round will live up to those aspirations is less certain. This is not only because the talks are stalled. Perhaps more important, the benefits of the round to the world's poorest people have anyway been overstated. And most important of all, neither developed nor developing countries have been ambitious enough to seek the degree of trade liberalisation needed to help the poorest.
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