This is the Kato Daily Podcast for Thursday, July 31st, 2008. I'm Caleb Brown.

Doha is dead, but even if the round of trade talks gave trade representatives from India and China the opportunity to win points at home,

it doesn't mean the end of trade liberalization.

Dan I can send an associate director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies,

says liberalization will continue, even if countries that want to compete globally have to go it alone. Well, I mean, I think the Doha Round really ended in 2003 at the Kancun

ministerial. Since then there's been a little bit of progress,

but really the same divisions exist,

the same sort of north-south divisions.

The same mercantilist arguments were presented,

the same political posturing was offered.

In fact, this week's ray of optimism took me by surprise. I really didn't think that the

negotiators would get this far. But in fact I look at it as the United States and

Europe actually calling the bluff of the big developing countries in particular India and China

Because the US actually did have some pretty decent offers on the table and

The straw that broke Doha's back was dispute over how developing countries could respond to surges in agricultural inputs.

And that was an issue that really could have been resolved fairly readily.

But I think the Indians came to the table with the intent of going home without

a deal.

The negotiations were sort of used as a stage for making political statements to the audience back home.

I think Kamal Nath, the Indian Commerce Minister, their lead negotiator, saw this as an opportunity to show domestic

constituencies that he can stand up to the United States and to Europe. He

created sort of this David and Goliath myth. And regrettably, China didn't really

...