Challenging the European Union: the rising powers and the USA in the Doha Round

Abstract

In this article, the challenges posed to the European Union's (EU) role in trade policy and its implications for development policy during the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Agenda, also known as the Doha round, are highlighted. The authors argue that transformed power relations have created a situation characterized by role uncertainty, for the emerging powers but also for the EU. Priorities among multiple possible roles – in the existing trade regime, in relation to the global South and in the ongoing negotiations – become subject to redefinition. For the EU, heavily wedded to a multilateralist and reformist mission because of its own history, this process is particularly difficult. The EU's traditional role conceptions as a leader and a benign partner to developing countries have been challenged and partly replaced by a more realist approach.

Keywords:

• Doha round
• leadership
• rising powers
• roles
• role uncertainty
• WTO

Notes

1 The empirical sections draw on existing accounts of the negotiations as well as the personal experiences of one of the authors (Ahnlid), who served as Sweden's member of the EU Trade Policy Committee 2005–2011. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the Swedish government.

2 By July 2008, the WTO G-20 had 23 members: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.