Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Aug 2 (IPS) – Civil society activists, who early on foretold the inevitable collapse of the Doha Round, are now predicting the beginning of the end for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) itself, which sponsored the failed negotiations.
"My sense is that it is a very mortally wounded organisation at this point," said Walden Bello, executive director of Focus on the Global South and sociology professor at the University of the Philippines.
But in fact, the first references to the Doha Round's doomed future did not come from the ranks of non-governmental organisations. It was Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath who declared, with a dose of black humour, that the Round was not yet dead, "but it is definitely between intensive care and the crematorium."
He was the first major participant to make such a comment on the negotiations that careened off the tracks Jul. 25 when talks broke down among negotiators from Australia, Brazil, the United States, India, Japan and the European Union, who had met in an attempt to resolve differences that would revive the agenda of the WTO talks.
