The Cancun Breakdown and the WTO's Doha Development Agenda in Global Governance

Abstract

The fifth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) collapsed in Cancun. Three sets of factors are postulated to explain the breakdown. First, there were ideological conflicts between mercantilism and liberalism, and between the three pillars of sustainable development: the economic, the social, and the environmental. The erosion of the linkage between liberalism and mercantilism in the compromise of embedded liberalism — as well as weak or absent linkages between the sustainable development goals — was also problematic in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations. Second, changing power relations and priorities among the WTO member states were evident in Cancun. Among others, the newly emerged Group of 21 for agricultural negotiations with the support of civil-society groups was a notable development. Third, there were institutional and domestic constraints in the negotiation structure. The Cancun breakdown poses a serious challenge for WTO negotiations, multilateralism, and global governance.