EuroLinks Daily View: Poor Countries Face a Struggle at Davos
Despite their sponsors' best motives, moves to restart the collapsed Doha round of world trade talks at the World Economic Forum in the Davos Swiss resort this week may prove quixotic. In both the U.S. and the EU, which are critical to any advance, trade negotiators face resistance from powerful farm lobbies.</br></br>Started in 2001, the Doha round is meant to help poor countries gain access to the developed world's markets by cutting subsidies and tariffs in rich markets -- especially in agriculture. In return, wealthy nations would win access to key markets for services such as banking and insurance. Talks collapsed in July after the EU and U.S. turned down requests by emerging economies such as Brazil and India to trim generous farm handouts.</br></br>Trade representatives from 30 leading economies, including the European Union, the U.S., China, India and Brazil, will hold one-on- one talks before meeting as a group Saturday and hope to tell the World Trade Organization they are prepared to resume "serious" formal negotiations. But with little real change since the breakdown, the U.S. and EU remain unwilling to cut farm subsidies enough to satisfy the emerging economies, and the ministers are said to be trying to save face, to show they're working hard for a deal.</br></br>---</br></br>Read John W. Miller's report: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116958872432485383.html