International trade fell off the charts in the fourth quarter of 2008 and showed only a modest easing in the rate of decline in the early months of 2009. Well-regulated open trade is essential for economic recovery and development, yet in times of crisis, protectionism may appear an attractive solution. It should be resisted.

As you point out, a key cause of the problems of the Doha trade round has been a lack of understanding among voters and opinion makers in the developed world on the importance of farm trade liberalisation (No 257, October 2006).

The Doha round of trade negotiations was launched in November 2001, but stalled in July this year. It should be relaunched. International trade may be stronger today than ever, but the global marketplace remains littered with barriers and restrictions that hold back potential, not least in developing countries.

I am in contact with leaders and officials both from the world’s most developed nations and from developing countries. When the Doha Development Round talks collapsed in July, I was struck by the gap between what officials say when they meet at the OECD in Paris and how they define their positions in the WTO talks in Geneva.

The current round of trade negotiations, which are shaped by the development agenda set at Doha in 2001, hang in the balance. This should not be so. Naturally, after collapsed talks in Seattle in 1999 and Cancún in 2003, people are asking uneasy questions. Will Hong Kong, China be another failure? And if the talks collapse, will the multilateral trading system under the WTO survive?

Letter to the editor:You are right to argue that OECD agricultural subsidies (particularly in Europe and the US) always seem to be a stumbling block in the multilateral trade negotiations (“Farming support: the truth behind the numbers”, by Stefan Tangermann, see OECD Observer No 243, May 2004). This is the reason why free trade in agriculture is often considered a pipe dream.

The failure at Cancún risks a serious weakening of the multilateral trading system. And that includes sustained damage to the interests of poorer countries. It does not have to be so.

The multilateral trading system is under great strain. But the system is alive and will gain in significance after the setback at Cancún, argues Supachai Panitchpakdi, Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

Opening up markets is important, but only part of the challenge. More effort is needed to help developing countries trade in the first place. This is a complex challenge.

The breakdown of trade talks in Cancún showed, once again, the difficulty of achieving a multilateral consensus on agricultural trade reform. Many OECD countries are reluctant to reform their agricultural policies and dismantle protection, despite overwhelming evidence of the benefits. Why is reform so difficult to achieve and how can it be fostered?

WTO talks have to be put back on track, but there is time to do some thinking first. In particular, to work properly, free trade needs to be backed by strong competition rules.

Remember Seattle? Or was it Geneva? WTO ministerial meetings are now a regular feature of the global political calendar – they are in some ways the policy equivalent of the soccer World Cup in terms of intensity, media attention, sometimes disappointing finals, even crowd trouble. The next stop is the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancún, Mexico, in September, again with a heavy agenda amid great expectations. In the run-up to these talks we thought it might be worth retracing the road to Cancún.

4 September 2003* – Next week, trade ministers will gather at Cancún to advance the Doha Development Agenda. They carry with them the aspirations of millions around the world whose hopes for economic advancement rest on opportunities in the global economy.

Trade capacity-building – enabling developing countries to participate fully in the multilateral trading system – is a key element of the Doha Development Agenda. Information on progress in this area is now available from an OECD/WTO joint trade capacity-building database (TCBDB).

A cry for transparency always accompanies any WTO trade round, and Doha is no exception. Yet trade talks remain clogged with terms of reference, jargon and ambiguities. Trade and Competition: From Doha to Cancún tries to respond to this problem, coming as it does out of a meeting of trade and competition experts from developed and developing countries who met to explore and clarify some key themes in the Doha Declaration.