The Doha Development Round: Reintegrating Business Interests into the Agenda – WTO Negotiations from a German Industry Perspective

Abstract

Broad-based business support is essential to the development of the new round of trade negotiations and a successful conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda. But business will lend its support only if economic interests figure prominently in the negotiations. Once this is accomplished, protectionist interests of individual industry sectors can be counteracted effectively since the great majority of companies favor further trade liberalization and the strengthening of multilateral trading rules.In light of the above, the present paper explores why business has been relatively restrained in its support for the Doha round and, by way of the example of German industry, it outlines those economic interests in the most important negotiating areas which will be most affected by the new round. Business demands cover many subjects, from the well-known call for the reduction of tariffs to greater use of international standards and new international regulatory frameworks for investment and competition issues. This paper also shows that the interests of companies in the industrialized and developing countries are aiming in the same direction.