For those from a generation unfamiliar with the political cult classic, The Ugly American, the conduct of the United States Trade Representative, Michael Froman at the World Trade Organisation Nairobi Ministerial, would have served as a good introduction.
Even before he had boarded the plane to Nairobi, Froman had most negotiators from the developing countries, gathered for the talks in the Kenyatta Convention Centre, seething with anger with his op-ed in the Financial Times, ‘Time to be honest, we are at the end of the line on Doha’.
Arguing that “…Doha was designed in a different era, for a different era, and much has changed since”, Froman called for a different architecture at the WTO and an end to the Doha round, with clear indications that the US would block any re-affirmation of the Doha Round in the ministerial declaration. Doha negotiations, in Froman’s words, “remain deadlocked. After 14 years, including the past two years of intensified engagement, there is no light at the end of the tunnel”.
Please click here to read more.