Doha Round of Multilateral Negotiations and Development

The author critically discusses the Doha, Qatar, round of multilateral negotiations to reduce trade barriers under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO). He pays specific attention to whether or not the WTO should adopt general welfare or “development” goals in addition to its main function as the chief facilitator and policy-making body in the governing of international trade and investment. The author frames his discussion in the historical context of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and other multilateral trade negotiations and critically reviews Stiglitz and Charlton (2005), a previous examination of this question. He concludes that the WTO should restrict itself to trade-related issues, that civil society organizations should not be granted direct representation, that the “ultra-legalistic” system of dispute resolution developed at the Uruguay Round is biased toward countries that can afford expensive legal expertise, that the accession process needs to be streamlined, and finally that the WTO’s Anti-Dumping Measures (ADMs) should be repealed.