I have no idea why anyone is surpised that the Doha round of trade talks failed. The US was never going to agree to cutting farm subsidies. India was never going to destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of peasant farmers....thus driving them into its over-populated cities.
This sensitivity, particularly by India, to the potential for massive social destruction through ill-considered policy changes is laudable and sensible. Sure, some people will deprived of cheaper prices and others of some portion of potential profit. Those losses pale into insignificance alongside the potential loss of life and health by India's huge rural population.
Maybe in 20 or 30 years their children - those who survived - would be better off. But "creative destruction" cannot be allowed to join "collateral damage" as the equivalent financial euphemism for wrecking the lives of millions on the way to making a buck.
This round needed to fail. It did not deal with the full costs of the trade changes sought.
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