Word: doha
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...economic slowdown of late 2006 was part of a wider crisis of globalization, as energy prices soared and the drive toward free trade lost momentum. With oil stuck above $70 per bbl. and the Doha round of trade negotiations defunct, growth was bound to slacken. But what made matters unexpectedly worse was miscalculations by the world's central bankers...
...lobbyists, armies of protesters from around the world, and some 3,500 journalists. What's striking this time is the palpable nervousness in the air. The meeting is billed as critical for wrapping up a new multilateral trade accord, the ninth since 1947. This one is known as the Doha Development Round because it was conceived four years ago in the Qatari capital and is supposed to give a special boost to poor countries. But at a moment of rapid change in the world economy, with China emerging as an industrial colossus and India and Brazil starting to throw their...
...grandstanding and technical talk?the WTO has a language of its own that includes arcane concepts such as "Swiss coefficients" and "amber box support" (don't ask)?it's easy to lose sight of the big question: Does it really matter if the Hong Kong talks sputter and the Doha Round fails? The global economy, after all, has been humming along nicely under the old rules, which date back to the Uruguay Round in 1994. Since the U.S. bounced back from its post-9/11 slide, world economic growth has been more buoyant than at any time in the past...
...China?trade barriers that had been eliminated earlier in the year. That sort of backsliding, coupled with efforts by many countries to negotiate bilateral or regional trade accords outside the WTO framework, sends shivers through multinational corporations, who are the first to feel the impact of trade restrictions. The Doha round is needed to "keep in check the ever-present threat of protectionism," says a petition signed this month by the chief executives of 60 companies including Microsoft, Nestl? and corporations as far afield as China and Pakistan. The statement urged governments to "redouble their efforts to break...
...pressure is intensified by the fact that time is running out. The "fast-track" authority enabling U.S. President George W. Bush to sign off on the Doha round expires in July 2007. That means any agreement that isn't reached by the end of next year could be killed by the U.S. Congress. Hong Kong, a place that epitomizes the benefits of free trade, provides an opportunity to hammer out some of the disagreements so that a deal can be wrapped up in time. Even if the conference fails to produce the outlines of an accord, as now looks probable...