wto

The recently concluded Copenhagen Summit described by one section of the media as ‘The Last Chance to Save the Planet’ has been in no uncertain terms a massive letdown and a flop show. Copenhagen was supposed to be ‘HOPENHAGEN’ and instead it will be described as ‘FLOPENHAGEN’.

In this article, I examine the rift between the developed world and the BASIC countries which came to a head in Copenhagen. I also look at Copenhagen from a strict Indian perspective and how the Indian government has actually done a good job at Copenhagen.

Copenhagen looks like the first straw in a long line of disagreements whilst the world debates the climate change problem. Copenhagen reminds me of the Doha round of the WTO talks which I might add is yet to conclude.

One US analyst said it best when asked about the outcome of the recently failed WTO talks in Geneva “Success or failure of the Doha Round may very well lie in the hands of Kamal Nath alone”.While he did make this statement a few days before the talks were officially declared as a failure, he was definitely right.

For probably the first time in history three developing countries dictated the pace of the trade talks at Geneva. This year was perhaps special for them simply because when the entire issue being discussed began in 2001 in Doha they were merely participants but today they pretty much hold the key to World trade.