home > by publication type > daily analysis > Trade in the Balance
Email
| Prepared by: |
|---|
Farm subsidies are a barrier to global trade talks. (AP/Seth Perlman)
The Doha trade round is not dead yet, although a summer of heightened discontent may have made it appear so. Even at this late date, with no breakthrough in sight, major players in global trade are scrambling to salvage the five-year-old negotiations, once promised as a lifeline for scores of developing nations (AP). Finance ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, whose members account for nearly half of global trade, have vowed to restart the talks. A twenty-nation bloc of emerging-market states met in Brazil at the weekend, joined by top U.S. and European trade representatives. They reached no agreement on resumption of Doha talks because of a continued impasse over agriculture subsidies, but there was a general hope that talks would revive after U.S. midterm elections in November (NYT). Australia is also hosting a meeting of key trade states on September 20-22. World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy just concluded a trip to China, where he pressed the trade colossus to play a more constructive role in reviving the Doha talks (AFX).
The flurry of activity is seen as a last-ditch effort to rescue the Doha talks (McClatchy). All sides are keenly aware that U.S. presidential trade-promotion authority will soon expire, which could sideline the main catalyst in eight previous multilateral rounds of negotiations. Those rounds resulted in a steady lowering of barriers over fifty years and the creation of the WTO. The removal of barriers in the current round could lead to hundreds of billions of dollars in annual global gains, say groups like the World Bank. A failure of Doha raises concerns that a "backlash against globalization (FT) will generate more protectionism in the [leftover] vacuum,” writes C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics. A new CFR Critical Policy Choice report urges President Bush to commit the political capital to reach a successful conclusion to Doha. Author Daniel W. Drezner acknowledges the domestic risks involved but argues that just as trade liberalization proved an effective Cold War strategy, “trade expansion can and should be presented as a critical element of the long-term grand strategy of the United States to defeat terrorists and spready democracy."
Reason magazine’s Managing Editor Jesse Walker takes a dim view of the Bush administration’s political will: “Asked to choose between freedom and the farm lobby, Washington will opt for agribusiness almost every time.” Congressman James Kolbe (R-AZ), chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, is another critic of farm subsidies. “It makes zero sense to wipe out the benefits of U.S. foreign assistance in order to keep paying our farmers to be inefficient,” he writes in the Washington Post. Washington has offered to cut its agricultural subsidies by an average of more than 50 percent, conditioned on reciprocal EU moves. But the European Union and other parties are pressing for further cuts. Some trade experts worry that in the absence of a global trade breakthrough, the United States will lead the charge toward what they say are trade-distorting bilateral agreements, a trend outlined in this Backgrounder. But the crowded political agenda in Congress ahead of November’s midterm elections will make it tough to push through approval (LAT) of even modest pacts with Peru, Colombia, and Oman.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report lays out a thoughtful agenda for U.S. policy toward the Democratic Republic of Congo, arguing that what happens there should matter to the United States--for humanitarian reasons as well as economic and strategic ones.
In this report, CFR Senior Fellow Michael A. Levi analyzes the potential use of deterrence in preventing terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear weapons and recommends a new approach to U.S. declaratory policy, as well as ways to improve U.S. capabilities to determine the sources of terrorist attacks.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
Foreign Affairs has compiled a collection of articles that offer policy prescriptions to some of the world's most pressing problems.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1.212.434.9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the link below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
Global Economy 