WTO collapse – not all ‘developing countries’ are the same

In light of the apparent collapse of the Doha round of WTO talks, that the poorer of the developing nations, such as sub-Saharan African countries, aren’t blaming the developed nations of the world, such as the U.S. and other G8 members, the rest of the E.U., etc.

While I in no way claim to be an expert on international agricultural trade issues, and I of course don’t give a blank check to U.S. trade policy, I think in this case India bears as much blame as the U.S. for torpedoing the Doha round over its insistence on a higher cut from the special safeguard mechanism. Worth noting is that, in the longer term, the cut percentage that was on the table could help other countries more than India.

That said, you can’t but expect that the Tier I developing nations – India, China, Brazil, Argentina, etc. – would look “downward” as well as “upward” in trying to figure out what was best for themselves out of Doha.