Worries About the Doha Round

The Doha talks, which took place in Qatar in 2001, are suffering. The talks were designed to help developing countries gain a seat in world market and to help the countries economies grow. Since the Doha round in 2001, many fear that the talks will do more harm than good for poor countries if it succeeds. The main reason for the uncertainty of Doha is the direction in which the talks have turned to and that is agriculture.

Both the US and the European Union have export subsidies, domestic subsidies and market access issues, such as quotas and tariffs. Domestic subsidies give support to the countries farmers, which protect them. The US and EU main problem is that they want to protect their agriculture and are not very open to foreign imports. Quotas limit the amount of products the US and EU except from developing countries. Other issues with this are that they normally have a surplus and "dump" their excess into developing countries.

The EU sought to take a step in starting negotiations, but lots of opposition from developing countries made them back away. In 2005, the US offered a 50 percent reduction on tariffs for farm products and the EU followed with 44 percent reduction. Even then, the developing countries were not impressed and wanted at least 54 percent. This is the main problem with the Doha round, is reaching a happy medium between all of the countries, no one is ever satisfied.

If or when the trade talks fail, it would be a severe blow to the WTO. Globalization already has active protesters against it's aims and the failure of the Doha round would not help its reputation. If the talks are to come to a final decision, it must happen within the next year. The American government's trade authority will expire in 2007 and if Doha has not come to a conclusion, it will most likely fail.

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