WTO trade talks fails

It was the haggling over nuances of the Doha deal that stuck in the gullet, and the most troubled round of negotiations at the World Trade Organisation here to liberalise global commerce collapsed last night over differences between the US and India just as it seemed that patient diplomacy had paid off. Part of the problem was WTO itself. It has 153 members and no deal is possible unless all of them agree. Tension between the developing and developed world was evident ever since the talks started, but it became clear over the past nine days that there were splits among developing countries too. In the end, negotiations broke down under their own complexity.
The last two of the three main components of talks — liberalisation of trade in services, agriculture and industrial goods — were crucial. Washington and Brussels knew they would have to accept deep cuts in the support they provide for farmers: in the case of the European Union, some subsidies deemed most trade-distorting would have been cut by 80 per cent. In return, the West wanted better access for its manufacturers to the fast-growing emerging economies. After much haggling, leading developing nations led by Brazil agreed to a formula that would have meant average cuts of more than 50 per cent in industrial tariffs