The Doha round of world trade negotiations, aimed at liberalising global trade and providing fairer access for poor countries, has stuttered on for seven years, says The Independent. But the Geneva talks this week should not be ignored. The dismantling of trade barriers has led to massive economic growth. If countries put up barriers again, the global economy could go into reverse. And should the Geneva talks fail, the “chances of reviving them once the US elections are under way would be virtually nil”.
There is a lot at stake, agrees Lawrence Herman in The Globe and Mail. But the bickering is understandable. There are now 152 countries taking part. This makes consensus-building “extremely difficult”. The banana dispute – “one part of a giant jigsaw of about 30 outstanding issues” – illustrates why these talks are so “fiendishly complex”, says David Charter in The Times. Poor Latin American countries are desperate for lower EU tariffs so they can sell their bananas, but poor Caribbean countries such as Jamaica and St Lucia fear their economies could be ruined by the competition.
A compromise suggested by Pascal Lamy, director of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), was accepted reluctantly by the EU but is being quietly resisted by France, Portugal and Spain because it would hurt their former colonies. Latin America remains unsatisfied and is pushing for further changes. So what hope is there of a deal? Lamy puts the odds of success at more than 50%, says The Economist. “That, sadly, seems optimistic”.
The best hope is to retain the status quo by supporting the deal. That is worth “passionately defending” given that the alternative, protectionism, is “a lot worse”. “Lamy describes his organisation as the world’s insurance policy against protectionism. Now is precisely the wrong time to let that cover lapse.”