"The broader aims and objectives of WTO are to manage and promote international trade in the era of…

Question

"The broader aims and objectives of WTO are to manage and promote international trade in the era of globalization. But the Doha round of negotiations seem doomed due to differences between the developed and the developing countries." Discuss in the Indian perspective.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

The Doha Round stalled because developed members resisted farm-subsidy cuts and safeguards while demanding market access from developing members. For India, whose MSP procurement the Bali peace clause protects, a consensus-based WTO is preferable to mega-regionals like the TPP, where it has no seat.

**Introduction**

The Doha Development Agenda (2001) was meant to rebalance WTO rules for developing countries, but the July 2008 collapse and open disagreement at the Nairobi Ministerial (2015) over reaffirming its mandate left it close to dead.

**Why Developed and Developing Members Deadlocked**

SKETCH: comparison | The Doha Divide
a: Developed members
b: Developing members
- Market access first :: Development first
- Full reciprocity :: Special treatment
- New issues :: Finish old mandate
- Graduate big emerging :: Self-declared status

1. **Farm subsidies**: The US, EU and Japan resisted deep subsidy cuts while seeking access to developing markets, and developed members still hold about 95% of AMS entitlements (RIS, 2025).
2. **Safeguards and market access**: Talks broke down in 2008 over India and the US disagreeing on the Special Safeguard Mechanism trigger, while developed members demanded deep industrial tariff cuts yet resisted the professional mobility (Mode 4) India sought.

**Doha's Stakes for India**

1. **Defensive interests**: With over half its workforce in agriculture (Census 2011), India needs space for MSP procurement, which the Bali peace clause (2013) protected.
2. **Gains banked**: Nairobi's end to farm export subsidies and the Bali Trade Facilitation Agreement show progress by instalments, not a dead system.
3. **Cost of collapse**: A dead Doha shifts rule-making to mega-regionals like the TPP and TTIP, where India has no seat yet faces their labour, environment and patent standards.
4. **Offensive interests unmet**: India's edge in IT and professional services needed Mode 4 openings, which it later pursued through bilateral deals.

**Conclusion**

The Doha Round is stalled more than doomed, and its fate decides whether trade rules stay multilateral. For India, a consensus-based WTO that keeps special and differential treatment remains the best guarantor of food security and fair market access.

"The broader aims and objectives of WTO are to manage and promote international trade in the era of globalization. But the Doha round of negotiations seem doomed due to differences between the developed and the developing countries." Discuss in the Indian perspective.

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