Political economy of the disappointing Doha Round of trade negotiations

Abstract

This paper stresses the importance of political as well as economic factors for understanding negotiating outcomes in multilateral trade negotiations such as the Doha Round. In particular, it is argued that economic factors of the type traditionally emphasized by economists in their classrooms are by themselves inadequate for analysing the negotiating process. A variety of political economy factors are discussed as explanations for the disappointing results of the Doha Round. © 2007 The AuthorJournal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.