Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Columbia University and CFR
As if undermining the WTO’s Doha Round of global free-trade talks was not bad enough (the last ministerial meeting in Geneva produced barely a squeak), the US has compounded its folly by actively promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
President Barack Obama announced this with nine Asian countries during his recent trip to the region. Read more…
Author: Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University
The Doha Round, the first multilateral trade negotiation conducted under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, is at a critical stage. Now in their 10th year, with much negotiated, the talks need a final political nudge, lest Doha — and hence the WTO — disappear from the world’s radar screen.
Indeed, the danger is already real: when I was in Geneva a year ago and staying at the upscale Mandarin Oriental, I asked the concierge how far away the WTO was. He looked at me and asked: ‘Is the World Trade Organization a travel agency?’ Read more…
Author: Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University
The Doha Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (MTN) is the first negotiation to take place under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO), founded in 1995.
The eight previous rounds of global trade talks were conducted under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), following its creation in 1947. Read more…
Author: Jagdish Bhagwati, CFR
India’s economy again exceeded expectations, growing by 8.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2010.
Those outside India often show exuberance at such high and rising growth, following the nation’s economic reforms in the early 1990s. Read more…
Authors: Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, Columbia University
Lagging employment recovery and continuing high levels of unemployment have marked the macroeconomic scenario in the United States. So it is natural that the United States, which chaired the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, would use its privileged position as the host to invite the US secretary of labour, a well-known union activist, to convene a meeting of the employment and labour ministers on the jobs situation prior to the next G20 heads of state meeting in Canada.
The macroeconomic aspects of the labour situation are indeed a proper focus of such a meeting. Read more…
Author: Jagdish Bhagwati
President Barack Obama faces protectionist pressures. These are not just from the labour lobbies that have led Joe Biden, US vice-president, to chide “pure free traders” and to ask for “fair trade”; and which, astonishingly, have also led the US president to use his first meeting with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico – overwhelmed by the brutal fight against drug cartels caused by the US failure to legalise drugs – to urge on him tougher labour standards, a protectionist demand that is clearly aimed at raising Mexican costs of production. The pressures come also from the lobbies pushing for a Detroit bail-out that is inconsistent with the World Trade Organisation.
Through all this, the “no-drama” Mr Obama has kept a low, indeed invisible, profile. With his innate ability to moderate highs and lows, he has been America’s first “lithium president”. Fortunately, on Tuesday he stepped up to the plate on the Buy American provisions in the stimulus package, leaving little doubt as to where his sentiments, and his policy preferences, lie.
Author: Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University
It’s too bad about the Doha Round.
But I am afraid Australia could have played a more understanding role over India’s demand for a more generous safeguards provision for agriculture which employs a very large fraction of her labour force. Surely, trade concessions are not possible unless there is a safety net and the safety net has to vary in scope with the size of the feared market disruption. India is being excessively cautious in my view; but this is an election year and the government faces rising food and oil prices, making it risk-averse. Getting India on board by being more understanding of its fears over its farmers and allowing for a more generous Special Safeguard mechanism was surely not beyond US means.
Besides, we must ask: what did the US itself offer by way of cutting the cap on her distorting subsidies? Pretty little! It is very hard for politicians in developing countries to tell their citizens that powerful and rich countries like the US can subsidise their agriculture and have their relatively unsubsidized farmers left open to compete with them. In economics, you can do that; but in politics you can’t. My observations were rather candid, I am afraid.