Trade talks in limbo

It really does not surprise me but it still is not good ...

(From The Guardian)

'A deal to reorganise the global trading system in favour of poor countries was looking further away than ever last night after last-ditch talks in Geneva to rescue the so-called "Doha round" fell apart with bitter recriminations on all sides. The World Trade Organisation chief, Pascal Lamy, said: "There has been no progress and therefore we are in a crisis."

Kamal Nath, the Indian trade negotiator, walked out early in disgust, saying: "There's no need to pretend this has not been a failure. I'm willing to negotiate commerce, but subsistence, livelihood, security, I will not be willing to negotiate."

(...)

'Céline Charveriat, head of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign, said: "This meeting was counter-productive. The atmosphere is more poisonous now than before, and ministers are leaving without a roadmap for July. It's impossible to see how a decent agreement can be resurrected from this chaos."'

Clearly, the big players do not want to give concessions here and as such they put their down in order to avoid getting caught in a prisoner's dilemma and in the end this was always the major problem when dealing with how to get concessions out of the likes of the US and Europe. How to fix it? Difficult to say but it will take boldness from some of the big nations and interests which they will have problems finding back-up for at the home front.