Negotiations in the troubled 'Doha round' of world trade talks collapsed on Monday after talks between the leading six trading powers in the World Trade Organisation failed in Geneva. The meeting between ministers from the EU, US, Japan, Brazil, Australia and India had been intended to break the deadlock that has held the talks almost at a standstill this year. But they said that unbridgeable divisions remained between the negotiators, particularly in the politically-charged area of agricultural trade. The US has been urging both rich and poor countries to open their markets to agricultural exports, but many countries including the EU and India said that the US needed to reform its farm subsidies first. The failure of the weekend talks means that the round will be suspended with no near-term prospect of being restarted. (Financial Times ^[1], Monday)

Just drop the barriers and subsidies.

FEE Timely Classic
What Free Trade Really Means ^[2] by Jeffrey Herbener