Following is a letter sent to the Editor of the Financial Times:
Dear Sir,
Susan Schwab is absolutely correct in saying that, with a little flexibility on all sides, there is some hope for the Doha Round ("How flexibility can salvage Doha" Financial Times October 3, 2007). That leaves us with very little hope for Doha.
Given that all sides are asking for plenty of flexibility from everyone else and offering very little in return, the Doha Round is doomed in all but the usual multilateral face saving which will enable governments to pronounce that free trade is alive and kicking, not on a path to disintegration.
The rich pronounce their support for free trade when what they mean is that they want everyone to open their markets except themselves. The Cairns group should not let them get away with it.
If multilateral free trade is to survive, the rich need to give more to the poor, who are most deserving.
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
A successful agreement in the Doha round is within reach, but it could slip through our fingers unless a handful of major developed and developing countries demonstrate their willingness to confront difficult choices. If this once-in-a-generation opportunity is missed, the price would be paid primarily by the poorest people on the planet.
Last month, leaders of the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation economies – developed and developing, representing almost half of world trade – met at the Apec summit in Sydney. All 21 pledged to exercise “the political will, flexibility and ambition to ensure that the Doha round negotiations enter their final phase” and called on their trading partners to do the same.
See full Article (paid subscription required).
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