Ten years ago the launch of the Doha Development Round scored blanket news coverage on both sides of the Atlantic. The round of WTO negotiations named after the city where they took place were aimed at achieving no less than a complete reform of the way the global trading system works, levelling the playing field for developing countries by giving them access to developed country markets. Ten years on as we mark the anniversary of the talks, it is clear they have uniformly failed to deliver. This is all the more sobering as the world struggles to drag itself out of the worst financial crisis in almost a century.
Yet there is still a chance for the leaders who make up the WTO to send a signal. Throughout the Doha negotiations, one iconic issue has repeatedly demonstrated rich countries' unwillingness to act in favour of the poor: cotton.
As we grapple with the financial crisis, acting on cotton would signal that the world still cares about making the global trading system work for poor states as well as rich ones. For this to happen the US has to lead by example and show that its words are followed by actions when it talks of the world needing to trade its way out of the economic crisis.
One principle more than any other has marked the failure of the WTO Doha Development Round: the unwillingness of the EU and the US to lift agricultural subsidies which protect rich farmers while simultaneously preventing millions in the developing world from getting the prices they need. And it is the clothes you wear on your back, or to be more precise the material they are made out of, which best symbolise this on-going inequity. Since the Doha talks kicked off in 2001 the US Government has paid over $31 billion to a few thousand US cotton farmers, keeping them in business and effectively pricing many developing world producers out of the market. By contrast, in West Africa alone over 10 million livelihoods depend on cotton.
The WTO has long since ruled against the US, most notably in 2010 after the Brazilian government tabled a complaint against US subsidies. Instead of ending the practice the US simply bought Brazil off by extending subsidies to Brazilian farmers as well.
This is the antithesis of the inclusive equitable growth world leaders including President Obama offer as a solution to the economic crisis we now face. Only last week world leaders issued a call at the G20 to fight against protectionism. It is time President Obama gave the world a signal that he means business.
The anniversary of Doha arrives at the same time as a domestic window of opportunity opens for the US President. Not only are we a matter of weeks away from the next WTO Ministerial meeting where world leaders will aim to salvage a deal from the Doha trade round; in the US itself there is intense debate around the forthcoming Farm Bill, which is responsible for agreeing the level of cotton subsidies. At the same time the majority of US voters are looking for their President to cut spending and cut the deficit. There are many cuts that the Administration will rightly refuse to make. But here is one that it can. For Obama, cutting cotton subsidies along with other harmful agricultural subsidies will not only send a strong message to the world that he cares about the WTO and global trade; it will also underline to the electorate that he is willing to take hard decisions in the face of a powerful farm lobby.
There are issues too for the beleaguered EU - it too needs to end its cotton subsidies. But it is the US that can make a real difference. By ending cotton subsidies President Obama would send a message to countries ranging from Egypt to Ghana to Bangladesh that the US plays fair on the global stage. By doing so he would also improve the lives of millions of people in the developing world overnight. I can think of no better way to mark the anniversary of Doha.