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Doha to Oil Wheels of World Commodities

In his inaugural address to the USCTAD Global Commodities Forum in Geneva Tuesday, World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy said through the Doha Round; WTO Members have an opportunity to dismantle even more of the artificially-created barriers that hinder commodity trade. He added that for food trade, the climate crisis makes a properly functioning transmission belt even more imperative.

Through the Doha Round of trade negotiations, Lamy says WTO members have an opportunity to reduce the developed world's remaining tariff peaks.  An opportunity to reduce the tariffs of emerging economies; as well as the agricultural subsidies of developed countries that distort international trade. The round also offers an opportunity to deal with tariff escalation, tackling export taxes and export restrictions in agriculture

When completed, Lamy said the Doha Round will oil the wheels of international trade in commodities, giving the developing world its fair share of the market.  It will improve the workings of what is no more, in the end, than a transmission belt, between countries where there is demand and countries where there is supply.