The AP is reporting that "WTO talks in Germany collapse":
A crucial meeting of the World Trade Organization's four most powerful members has failed, officials said Thursday, dealing a major setback to efforts at reaching a new global commerce pact.
"It was useless to continue the discussions based on the numbers that were on the table," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said after the talks ended two days ahead of schedule.
This may or may not be the end of the Doha Round -- there have been numerous time that the Round has been called dead, only to see one more last-gasp attempt. As the - Washington Post reports:
But despite the severe setback, the ministers insisted that the Doha liberalization round was not dead.
If this is truly the end however, it does not come as a surprise - including to me. The real trick is what happens next. I have long argued for a more sectoral approach to the harmonization of economic rules (for that is really what it is all about - not just trade). For those who would argue that a sectoral approach won't work, let me suggest that it is a little more than ironic that Doha seems to have crashed and burned on the sectoral issue of agriculture (see Global Trade Talks Founder On Farm-Subsidy Issues - WSJ.com). Explicitly recognizing the sectoral approach is, in my humble opinion, the only way we will move forward in our quest to cope with the emerging global I-Cubed Economy.
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