The Doha Round: Objectives, Problems, and Prospects

The Doha Round: Objectives, Problems and Prospects

- Speaker: Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor, Columbia University

- Date : July 10, 2002.

"We need to tell [developing] countries to let the market work. Instead of patronizing an industry that they cannot export without all kinds of special privileges, which are normally self limiting, governments form export banks and put in place rules of origin. Then trading partners get upset and trade regulators intercede. They say to the poor country that you have to "graduate" now because you are already exporting too much. That means that investors will arrive and the market will get cut off... These non-trade barriers, like banks and rules of origin, are real problems that we have to address...”