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THE WORLD economy could use an injection of expanded trade. But prospects for a global agreement to slash subsidies and tariffs are dim as trade ministers and other officials from 30 leading member-states of the World Trade Organization prepare for a crucial meeting in Geneva next Monday. At stake is the Doha Round of trade liberalization talks, which began with great promise in 2001 but have moved fitfully ever since. The Doha Round was conceptually sound: On the theory that trade has already lifted millions of people out of poverty around the world, its goal was for industrial countries to open their agricultural markets to the developing world in return for greater access to developing-country markets for manufactured goods and services. This objective has proven politically ambitious -- it required sacrifice not only from Europe and the United States but also, as it turned out, from emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil, which are as eager to protect their booming industries as they are to sell more crops. ...
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