June 30, 2006

What is most at risk is Doha’s own relevance

Sir, June 30 you quite emphatically, almost desperately, pleading, ask for any results, whatever, from the current round of negotiations of the Doha Trade. Just so you are better prepared for the case of a let-down please remember that the world will still be going round and around, in an ever more inter-related way, even if all the Doha’s set their mind against it.

Just an example, look at call centers and similar outsourcings and ask yourself what on earth did Doha, or Gats, or what have you, have to do with them. In fact the most fundamental driver for the guys of Doha to produce some concrete results might be that if they do not, they will be further left behind, and risk looking foolishly irrelevant, like all those in the USA that are currently debating immigration reforms will do, when they finally wake up to the reality that they are already living in a de-facto Commonwealth with Central America.