Does Geneva marks the end of Doha round of WTO talks?

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Geneva have finally collapsed. The Doha round of WTO talks that started in the Qatari capital of Doha with a view to liberalising global trade for an easier and cheaper flow of goods across the national borders globally with an eye to the interests of the developing economies have finally foundered on the rocks of what the trade representatives of the developed economies called small matters. However, the Indian delegates led by the country's trade minister called it a serious issue affecting the lives of a billion poor farmers in 100 developing and least developing countries (LDCs). Apparently, it was the special safeguard mechanism (SSM) that would allow the developing and the LDCs to raise farm tariffs to protect the interest of their poor farmers in the face of higher volumes of import from the developed economies. Unfortunately, as it happened in all other trade talks over the last seven years in the run up to this final Geneva event, the talks ended in recriminations among the leaders of the developed nations and those of the developing ones each blaming the failure of the deal on the other.

This time it is one of the leading emerging economies, India, and the world's most advanced economy, the USA, who, just the other day celebrated their success in forging a new era of friendship over the controversial nuclear deal, could not after all see eye to eye with each other when the more fundamental issue of protecting their farmers' interests came to the fore.

However, it would be na