World Trade Negotiations Collapse….. Again.

Last week the World Trade Organization met again, this time in Geneva. They failed to agree….. again. According to the Economist magazine:

The round’s chief ambition was to straighten out some of the kinks in agricultural trade. This ancient activity, which accounts for only 8% of world merchandise trade, is the most heavily distorted by misbegotten policies. It is, therefore, in agriculture that an agreement could do the most good. But it was also in agriculture that the agreement came unstuck.

According to the BBC:

The negotiations foundered because the United States could not agree with China and India on import rules.

China said the collapse was a serious setback for the world economy, while the EU described it as "heartbreaking".

As usual, everybody seemed to think someone else was to blame:

China said it blamed the "selfish and short-sighted behaviour" of wealthy nations for the failure of the trade talks.

It said that the talks collapsed ultimately because the US and EU were unwilling to scrap the huge subsidies they pay their farmers.

Japan, meanwhile, was critical of China and India's stance.

"Compared with seven years ago when the Doha round started, the economic weight of China and India has been increasing. At the same time they need to take more responsibility," said Nobutaka Machimura, Japan's chief cabinet secretary. "I wonder if they were thinking about the world economy as a whole while pursuing their own national interests."

An editorial in the Economist suggests that smaller developing nations are not pleased about the stance of China and India:

Some developing countries—in Latin America, especially Brazil, and in Africa too—are seething that a deal slipped away.

Given all this, the inability of ministers to agree, having come so close, seems unfathomable. Belief is all the more beggared when you look at the wider world. The global economy is slowing, possibly horribly.

And finally, as if all that were not enough:

Meanwhile, believe it or not, food is pricier than ever.

I don't suppose our misbegotten politicians went hungry during their latest gabfest though. Do you?