Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Dumbing Down Doha

World trade talks have failed.

Basically lotsa countries get together and "try" to strike a deal which frees up free trade.

Thing is, getting so many countries to agree on such a deal is nigh on impossible -- especially when countries like France and Italy start meddling.

Multilateral trade agreements end up being one of two things, a stalemate where nothing is actually agreed, or a watered down waste of everyone's time. And they're done this way on purpose so the EU and the US can say they're open to free trade and inclusion on the one hand, but knowing that things will be too tough to disentangle.

Bilateral agreements are the way to go -- such as the one recently struck between Chile and Indonesia.

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