[wto] doha less a dodo than uruguay

Pascal Lamy said in Cairns, Australia, that if completed, Doha’s impact would be a "quantum leap" ahead of the world's last trade deal, the Uruguay Round. Ministerial talks broke down in July over rival proposals to reduce farm tariffs and subsidies. The subsequent G-33 proposal to let developing countries exclude up to 20 per cent of their agricultural tariff lines from significant cuts would never get past the US. Excuse me but it seems a strange kind of logic which measures the relative failure of a round of talks by its comparison with the abject failure of the last round. National interest will always win out so what’s the point? Free lunches?