Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Dead as a Doha

The inevitable has occurred and another WTO round collapses. I saw this coming ever since attending a meeting at James Smiths corner in 2006. Observers had just returned from a Green Room session and were struggling to give any good news. It's affirmed, a new unilateralism and isolationist policy is setting in. Not good.

For New Zealand, that means that very soon we will be forced to choose sides. A small 'a' ally in the Pacific translates into client state status. As such, one does not have the luxury of completely independent foreign policy. There are some very big questions up ahead.