Doha the undead

Economist Jagdish Bhagwati is sounding the alarm about the slow progress of the Doha round of international trade talks. "A Doha failure," he writes, "would deal a lethal blow to the credibility and future of the WTO, which has been an almost unique example of effective and democratic multilateralism." Maybe so. But how exactly would ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Economist Jagdish Bhagwati is sounding the alarm about the slow progress of the Doha round of international trade talks. "A Doha failure," he writes, "would deal a lethal blow to the credibility and future of the WTO, which has been an almost unique example of effective and democratic multilateralism."

Economist Jagdish Bhagwati is sounding the alarm about the slow progress of the Doha round of international trade talks. "A Doha failure," he writes, "would deal a lethal blow to the credibility and future of the WTO, which has been an almost unique example of effective and democratic multilateralism."

Maybe so. But how exactly would Doha fail? Why can’t it be kept indefinitely in a state of suspended animation? Bhagwati is so exercised over the negotiating round’s prospects that he calls for a "high-stakes gamble": declare that agreement must be reached by the end of 2011 or declare the round dead. But doesn’t this kind of tactic invite the definitive failure that he fears? 

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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