Doha Round is the multilateral trade negotiations among WTO members. In the November 2001, the WTO's Fourth Ministerial Conference was held in Doha, Qatar and started a new round of multilateral trade negotiations. It is known as the Doha Round, BBC (2008).
The purpose of Doha Round is to reduce the trade barriers and to facilitate global trade through a more equitable environment. In particular, it includes the economic development of poorer countries, including agriculture, non-agricultural market access, service trade, negotiation rules, dispute resolution, intellectual property, trade and development, and trade and other environmental eight main topics. The key negotiations are in agriculture and non-agricultural market access issues, including reduction of agricultural subsidies, agricultural import tariffs and import tariffs on industrial products in three parts. Though Doha Round is called participated by all WTO members, the real protagonist of negotiations are United States, the European Union and the "G20 Coordination Group” formed by developing countries.
The causes of Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations are that the United States and the European Union use the implementation of the huge agricultural subsidies and high tariff barriers to protect their agricultural interests. It not only seriously distorts international agricultural trade, but also damages the developing countries, especially those of agricultural development in lest developing countries. Therefore, the developing countries in Europe and America have been asked to cut agricultural subsidies and reduce tariffs, but refuse to give in Europe and America. It results in protracted Doha Round negotiations. In the July of 2008, the ministerial negotiations held in Geneva by the United States and India refused to compromise on the special agricultural safeguard mechanism stalled negotiation process suffered a serious setback. The further process is that national leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to the Doha Round negotiations in order to early complete the negotiations in the beginning of 200 and jointly cope with the global financial crisis. In the 2010, September 15, mainly members of the Senior Officials Meeting of the WTO in Geneva restart negotiations and aim at promoting a work plan agreed upon. In the September 26, G20 leaders meet in Pittsburgh at the commitment. The parties will jointly oppose trade protectionism to plan to successfully complete the Doha Round negotiations, but it lacks specific implementation details (Fergusson 2008).
The contents of the negotiations are listed as follows Civil Society Organisations (2008). Agriculture negotiations include export competition, domestic support and market access in three areas. Non-agricultural market access negotiations are mainly related to tariff and non-tariff barriers. It includes the reduction and elimination of tariffs on some negotiating tariff peaks, high tariffs and tariff escalation. The trade in services negotiations on trade in services is related to assessment, self-opening measures of reward model rules "GATS", the relevant domestic regulatory multilateral disciplines, special treatment and market access. Intellectual property rights negotiations include public health and trade, the relationship between intellectual property rights and the Convention on Biological Diversity, traditional knowledge, folklore protection and the protection of geographical indications and other issues. It mainly involves negotiating rules on existing anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing measures and regional trade agreements clarifying and improving the terms of the agreement. It also refers to dispute settlement negotiations "on the Dispute Settlement Understanding on Rules and Procedures" of improvements and clarifications and negotiations on trade and the environment, including the relationship between existing WTO rules and multilateral
