Where Do the Doha Round Agricultural Negotiations Stand?

Peter Gallagher thinks WTO agriculture proposals probably fall short of substantial improvements (Peter Gallagher.com.au, Feb 9).

Useful guidance for reading negotiated texts:

As a rule of thumb, simple deals open markets. The more complex the arrangements, the more likely they are to be ‘fine-tuned’ to minimize their impact on the beneficiaries of protection.

In summary:

...it’s likely that these proposals will bring about, at most, modest changes and no commercial impacts in some key trades...

But wait, those [the list of modest changes and no commercial impacts - Ben] are the strengths of this package. There are backward steps, too. The Doha Round will have the distinction of being the first WTO negotiation to create new, permanent categories of agricultural protection where none existed before....