The WTO Doha Development Round negotiations appear to have broken down after nine days of tough, but ultimately fruitless talks, WTO officials have told just-food.

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Diplomats were at 18.30 GMT filing into a meeting of the WTO trade negotiations committee, expected to decide what happens next. A formal statement is anticipated this evening.


Diplomats said developing countries such as India and China could not reach agreement with the US over their right to protect their food producers in case of a surge of cheap imports.


Amid the failure to strike a deal on this ‘special safeguard mechanism’ for protecting food manufacturers, diplomats and trade ministers ran out of steam and energy at this marathon meeting at the WTO’s Geneva headquarters. Member governments could return for another round of talks in September after their August political summer break.


“We were so close to getting this done,” US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters at Geneva.

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However, the negotiations could also be suspended until after the US elections, in which case the circumstances underpinning the detailed sets of agreements thrashed out since 2001 may be seen as outdated, requiring a complete renewal of the talks. This would delay any global food trade liberalisation agreement for years.


One casualty of the collapse seems to have been a solution to the long-running banana trade row between the EU, and its African and Caribbean allies, and the US and its Latin American colleagues. A proposed deal had been pinned to an overall Doha agreement, which has now crumbled.


“The banana deal is gone,” said one European Commission official.