Agreeing and Implementing the Doha Round of the WTO

Leading scholars and practitioners comment on the impact of the Doha Round on international trade law. Authors examine the areas of WTO law which are required to change, trade issues, the improvement of the dispute settlement, and the balance between free trade, environmental protection and human rights.

The Doha Round is the first major trade negotiation round under the WTO since the failure of the Seattle Ministerial in 1999. The Doha discussions and results will have a large impact on the future of international trade law. Leading scholars and practitioners from three continents comment on four such areas in this book. Firstly, poverty eradication, capacity building, and special and differential treatment are required to change for WTO law to be accepted globally; this may lead to a reinterpretation of WTO law. Secondly, the major trade policy concerns, the global concept of competition, and the impacts of trade facilitation and of sustainability of trade liberalization are examined. The third topic is the improvement of the dispute settlement through, for example, a relaxation of tensions between the judicial and diplomatic models. Finally, possible solutions for the balance between free trade, environmental protection and human rights are explored.