Do or Die for the Doha Trade Talks March 23, 2009

Hosted by: American Enterprise Institute

Will the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Development Round be saved by the April 2009 meeting of the G20 nations, after years of frustrating negotiations? In July 2008, WTO nations failed spectacularly to reach compromises over central issues. Then, last November, the G20 nations’ call for a Doha revival as one key measure to address the world financial crisis also came to naught. Has anything changed?

Should the negotiations be suspended for the duration of the economic crisis – or just put out of their misery once and for all? Conversely, can the round be saved by expanding the agenda to include climate change and the environment, or labor and competition policy issues, as some have suggested? What are the implications for the global trading system and the WTO of pursuing these or other options to conclude Doha?

At this event, a panel of leading experts, comprising AEI’s Claude Barfield; William Lane, the Washington director for government affairs at Caterpillar Inc.; Aaditya Mattoo of the World Bank; former under secretary for international trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce Christopher A. Padilla; and Robert Vastine of the Coalition of Service Industries, will consider what to do with the ill-fated talks. AEI’s Philip I. Levy will moderate.

Official Website: http://www.aei.org/events/type.upcoming,eventID.1898,filter.all/event_detail.asp