THE collapse of the recent ministerial meeting in the Doha Round of world trade talks was one of those occasions when most politicians want to keep out of the headlines.
But the low profile of the EU in the blast of news coverage which followed the breakdown is particularly significant. It marks a sea change in international trade politics.
Certainly, headlines about the Doha Round have not been in short supply inrecent days. Quite rightly, the failure of the ministerial meeting was a serious defeat for trade and for international development. Ministers from developing countries recognised this all too clearly, even if many development organisations did not.
Nevertheless, as I was packing my suitcase for the flight home, I felt encouraged by the role which the EU had played in the agricultural discussions.
If I was not taking a large share of the headlines, this was not thanks to a political vanishing act. It was because, in marked contrast to previous trade rounds, no-one was laying the collapse of the talks at the door of the EU. More than that, the EU had energetically urged the
talks forward.
This transformation of its role in World Trade Organisation negotiations is due in large measure to reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy.
In the EU, helping farmers used to mean primarily supporting farm prices. To keep prices high, we spent large sums of public money on buying up unwanted produce and on subsidising exports.
