The UK needs to work within the EU to adopt a new approach to the Doha negotiations, EU preferences need to be updated for the 21st century, and any global or regional climate change deal must be dovetailed with the multilateral trading regime and with development priorities.
The fears of a mass shift to protectionism as a result of the global financial and economic crisis have not yet been borne out. This Opinion warns against undue pessimism, looking at evidence on whether or not protectionist policies have been increased. It argues that the current situation is very different to that prevailing during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when goverments had fewer policy levers to stimulate the economy. The Opinion warns, however, against lowering the anti-protectionist guard too soon, given the scale of unemployment.
Leaving the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) hanging is not the best policy strategy.
The competitive edge of Cambodia's garment exports has been eroded by the financial crisis. This Background Note suggests possible ways forward.
This paper sheds some light on the actual and possible effects of the global economic crisis on trade in small states, specifically focusing on the 32 states classified as such within the Commonwealth.
Containers near the port of Zanzibar, Tanzania
License: Creative Commons
Credit: twocentsworth
Source: Flickr
At this event, leading experts will focus on three issues: whether and how the global crisis has affected trade policy across countries; the extent to which trade policy responses to the crisis have influenced developing countries’ capacity to trade; and finally, what types of policies may maximise the developmental benefits of trade during the crisis, as well as the possible role of multilateral institutions in promoting such policies.
This Opinion argues that the pursuit of the Doha Trade Round should be a low priority, and that other trade issues are more important. Not only are the returns from a Doha round likely to be low, but the potential costs are high, as a failure or minimal compromise is likely to undermine the credibility of the WTO.
For now, rather than focusing on the Doha Round, it appears to be more sensible to concentrate on six more important trade issues: