WTO deal offers little cheer even if done by Christmas
Friday, 12 December 2008
GENEVA, Dec 11 (AFP): World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy seems set on clinching a global trade pact by Christmas but some analysts question if a Doha deal would be the best gift for the world economy in these troubled times.
World leaders have called for a rapid conclusion to the WTO Doha talks after seven years of wrangling but even best estimates of what an accord would bring are dwarfed by the hundreds of billions of dollars spent already on bank bailout plans.
"No one believes that a Doha deal can fix the financial crisis," said Carin Smaller, WTO specialist at the Geneva-based think-tank Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
"It pushes for less government intervention in the markets at a time when the reverse is happening-everyone, particularly the corporate sector, is now asking governments to intervene," Smaller told the news agency.
Timothy Wise, Research Director of the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE) at Tufts University, said: "If part of the deal involves further deregulation of the financial sector, that could just make things worse. It's a really bad time."
Lamy has estimated the benefits of a successful trade deal at up to 100 billion dollars a year-compared with the 700-billion-dollar US bailout package for its financial sector alone.
Wise also pointed to World Bank and other studies which have shown that only 16 billion dollars worth of benefits would go to the developing world.
World leaders have called for a rapid conclusion to the WTO Doha talks after seven years of wrangling but even best estimates of what an accord would bring are dwarfed by the hundreds of billions of dollars spent already on bank bailout plans.
"No one believes that a Doha deal can fix the financial crisis," said Carin Smaller, WTO specialist at the Geneva-based think-tank Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
"It pushes for less government intervention in the markets at a time when the reverse is happening-everyone, particularly the corporate sector, is now asking governments to intervene," Smaller told the news agency.
Timothy Wise, Research Director of the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE) at Tufts University, said: "If part of the deal involves further deregulation of the financial sector, that could just make things worse. It's a really bad time."
Lamy has estimated the benefits of a successful trade deal at up to 100 billion dollars a year-compared with the 700-billion-dollar US bailout package for its financial sector alone.
Wise also pointed to World Bank and other studies which have shown that only 16 billion dollars worth of benefits would go to the developing world.