Deadlock in Durban
Because of increasing American recalcitrance on multilateral issues, Jagdish Bhagwati holds little hope for the Durban climate change talks.
Interviewee: Sebastian Mallaby, Director, Center for Geoeconomic Studies, CFR
Interviewer: Lee Hudson Teslik, Assistant Editor, CFR.org
March 7, 2008
If the next U.S. administration decides to ignore rulings that run counter to its policy, that in turn could undermine the WTO’s dispute settlement system and its tribunals. “There’s a threat there to the legitimacy of the World Trade Organization,” Mallaby says. “Because global trade does function best when you can have rules that can be resolved by these kind of tribunals, that is a threat to what we’ve achieved, and that is where we need to focus.” He adds that preserving the current dispute settlement framework should take precedence over pressing a new multilateral trade deal through the Doha round of WTO talks.
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Because of increasing American recalcitrance on multilateral issues, Jagdish Bhagwati holds little hope for the Durban climate change talks.
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