The Doha Development Round is gripped by a profound sense of inertia, and the EU no longer seems able to push it forward. Roderick Abbott examines the factors behind the impasse and argues that the WTO must now adjust to changed circumstances if it is to save Doha
In the spring of this year it still seemed possible to some observers that the Doha Round might be completed before the end of 2011 (Europe’s World, Spring Issue, ‘What Europe should do to save the Doha Round’ by Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz and Trineesh Biswas). There was hope. They thought that although the EU was not itself key to the problems which have created the impasse, it could nevertheless play an important role as to mediator between the opposing camps.