Why the Doha Round of talks finally died

The Times (UK) ^ | July 30, 2008 | Carl Mortished: World business briefing

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The bricks are crumbling in the house of global trade and the Brics, those fashionable emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, China, are crumbling, too, wracked by inflation, slackening growth and the flight of hot money.

In Geneva, Kamal Nath, the Indian Trade Minister, was gritting his teeth, doing his best to justify a wrecking operation that has earned him brickbats from all round. He has brought to an end a seven-year struggle for a global trade agreement that would open borders and reduce subsidies and he knows it.

However, he was not looking at his negotiating partners, the Brazilian, American, European and Argentinian ministers. He had his eyes fixed on Delhi, where the Indian Reserve Bank Governor was raising interest rates and signalling an economic slowdown.

Mr Nath's problem was the wretched farmers, not the East Anglian sugar barons or the American cotton kings, so often the butt of abuse. There is another group of farmers who wallow in subsidies, wreck government budgets and who demand high tariff walls to keep out imports of cheaper food.

These are India's peasantry and their political power is being felt on a global scale. Mr Nath could not afford to ignore them: India's rural population numbers 600 million, the last BJP Government was brought down for ignoring them and this Congress Party Government is unlikely to make that mistake.

[Clintonfatigued]

The process of globalization seems ot have hit a speed bump, or maybe a pothole.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread:

Superclass of 6,000 are power elite[Book Review]

******************************EXCERPT INTRO************************

"Superclass — The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 379 pages, $26), by David Rothkopf: It's not just trade and finance that's being globalized these days, it's sheer power — the power of about 6,000 distinguished people to get big things done across national frontiers, says author David Rothkopf.

Trouble is, he complains, this "Superclass" isn't helping 2 billion powerless people who get along on $2 a day or less. He warns that unless those 2 billion get a voice, globalization will be in danger.

The 6,000 are a scattered lot. Americans know about President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI. But how about Wu Xiaoling, who controls $1.3 trillion worth of foreign reserves from her post as deputy governor in the People's Bank of China? It's a hoard that Communist Chinese leaders have hung over the head of the world's financial markets.

Then there's Paulo Coelho, the Brazilian writer who has sold more than 100 million copies of his books. And Rex Tillerson, head of Exxon Mobil. Know about them?

Rothkopf takes pains to show in "Superclass — The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making" that he has long experience with members of, and aspirants to, this "superclass."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Liatening to Pat Choate on CSPAN this morning.,...he makes a good case that it is a good thing....and he has a new Book:

Dangerous Business: The Risks of Globalization for America P>******************EXCERPT*****************

Editorial Reviews

Review
“[An] articulate assessment of America’s position in the global economy . . . Choate exposes the dark side of globalization with well-argued points on the dangers Americans face in lowered safety standards for imported food and pharmaceuticals, underemployment, the loss of national sovereignty, and elites with divided loyalties.”
–Library Journal

Product Description

From one of the most respected and vigorous economic thinkers in Washington, a wake-up call about the perils of unfettered globalization. In this impassioned, prescient book, Pat Choate shows us that while increased worldwide economic integration has some benefits for our fiscal efficiency, it also creates dependencies, vulnerabilities, national security risks, and social costs that now outweigh its advantages. He takes the long view of developments such as technology-driven progress, the offshoring of jobs, and open trade, arguing that current U.S. policies are leading to worldwide economic and political instability, in much the same way as before the Great Depression.

Choate writes convincingly about the Defense Department’s growing dependence on foreign sources for its technologies, the leasing of parts of our interstate highway system to overseas investors, China’s economic mercantilism, and international currency manipulation that damages the dollar. We have been borrowing heavily from foreign lenders, who by 2009 will own more than half of the Treasury debt, a third of U.S. corporate bonds, and a sixth of U.S. corporate assets—all of which, if handled improperly, could trigger a global economic collapse.

But our economic forecast need not be dire. Choate sees a way out of these dilemmas

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Liatening should be.... Listening

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[grey_whiskers]

Shameless plug ALERT!

Read about it here.

Cheers!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for adding that link....

[E. Cartman]

The disciples of free trade have made it an end in itself rather than a means to bolster the nation’s security and prosperity. Recklessly pursuing any policy when it’s obviously damaging to the country is not a pillar of conservative philosophy.

[AuntB]

"Within our own borders we possess all the means of sustenance, defense, and commerce; at the same time, these advantages are so distributed among the different states of this continent as if nature had in view to proclaim to us be united among yourselves, and you will want nothing from the rest of the world." Samuel Adams July 4, 1776, on Independence

[SunkenCiv]

Somebody tell ‘em how we burn all our food to run our cars, that should bring them back to the table. ;’) Thanks Ernest.

[lonestar67]

There is no substance to this article. It is just vague references to various countries.

Globalization has reduced global poverty more than any other human force. It continues to do this and will continue to do so.

The talks are mere rationalizations about how governments will prevent human beings from trading freely. Its inevitable.

[Marine_Uncle]

Different authors, slightly different views and forecasts. Nothing that has not been repeated for many years. The selling out of America. And from within. The dumbing down of America. Develop the young to be nothing more then idiots who worship the song and movie industries. Keep em stupid and ill informed through their informative years. So they simply do not possess the required ability to think about how their nation is being destroyed.
Add to it the un-patriotic Americans who have no problem selling out our security and national wealth. It all has been in the making for many years. Nothing new to report here.