Former GATT and WTO Director-General Peter Sutherland is an optimistic man--one of those who, as Michael Mussa is rumored to have said about Michel Camdessus, is so sunnily optimistic that he sees the glass as half-full even when there is no glass at all.
Posted by DeLong at September 17, 2003 08:11 PM | TrackBackFinancial Times: The World Trade Organisation's failed ministerial conference in Cancún was a substantial setback for all those who see the multilateral trading system as one of the principal vehicles for global growth and development. It was not, however, a tragedy. Cool heads, some political vision and responsibility and a little patience could see the experience turned to advantage...
"And we live," said Pangloss, "in the very best of all possible worlds."
The expected spin and damage control aside, we may be on the verge of having the global trade arbitration mechanisms break on a grand scale (in large measure due to felonious abuse), and the only thing I can think of that would possibly be worse than a corrupted and influenced WTO would be no WTO at all.
We may see that shortly. May you live in interesting times.
Posted by: marquer on September 18, 2003 12:39 AMMay you live in >Just< times...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1044413,00.html The only way to create a safer world is to ensure that it is more just
Posted by: Jozef on September 18, 2003 05:37 AMMay you live in >Just< times...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1044413,00.html The only way to create a safer world is to ensure that it is more just
Posted by: Jozef on September 18, 2003 05:38 AMMay you live in >Just< times...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1044413,00.html The only way to create a safer world is to ensure that it is more just
Posted by: Jozef on September 18, 2003 05:41 AMMay you live in >Just< times...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1044413,00.html The only way to create a safer world is to ensure that it is more just
Posted by: Jozef on September 18, 2003 05:42 AMMay you live in >Just< times...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1044413,00.html The only way to create a safer world is to ensure that it is more just
Posted by: Jozef on September 18, 2003 05:42 AMMay you live in >Just< times...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1044413,00.html The only way to create a safer world is to ensure that it is more just
Posted by: Jozef on September 18, 2003 05:42 AMWe'd all be as optimistic as Sutherland if we'd all gotten 8 figure payouts from the Goldman Sachs flotation....
Posted by: P O'Neill on September 18, 2003 09:17 AMWell, the Economist's new issue calls Cancun just that, a "tragedy." They say optimists have pointed to how long the Uruguay Round took (8 years) as an example of how setbacks have been overcome in past trade talks. Whether that's relevant to the current problem who knows.
What hope is there for change? Maybe Sutherland addresses this point in the rest of his article (I don't have a subscription to FT). The Economist suggests that WTO rules are quite rigidly fixed on a consensus system. The poor countries say they will start raising complaints about agricultural policy within the WTO dispute resolution system soon, once the goodwill period agreed to at the start of the Doha Round expires, and they feel that may spur the rich country group to negotiate more seriously.
Posted by: Dimmy Karras on September 18, 2003 07:40 PMNice!
Posted by: milf on December 18, 2003 10:27 AM