WTO: Toward the Hong Kong, China Ministerial and Beyond

A successful Doha Development Round has the potential to raise standards of living worldwide, alleviate grinding global poverty, remove inequities in the trading system, and enhance international stability. With it, the well-being of Asia, which is home to most of the world’s poor, would be substantially enhanced. Yet there are huge risks that the prospective benefits will not be achieved. Over the past 4 years governments from 148 nations have been negotiating whether and how to open markets for agricultural products, industrial goods, and services. On 8 July 2005 in addressing the heads of country delegations Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi declared, “these negotiations are in trouble†, primarily for lack of political support. That suggests that people worldwide are unaware of the tremendous gains that would be captured from successfully concluding the Doha negotiations and the worrisome implications if they fail. Governments need to get the message out regarding why the Doha Development Round is absolutely vital to our future economic growth and political stability.