Pompous prancing about is embarrassing and counter-productive ASIA EDITION

The second big error is to engage in these bilateral deals in the first place. Mr [Peter Mandelson]'s task is to strengthen the multilateral system and bring the Doha development agenda to a successful conclusion. The objective of the multilateral system, as its name implies, is to be inclusive...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Financial times (London ed.)
Main Author Lehmann, Jean-Pierre
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London (UK) The Financial Times Limited 11.12.2006
Subjects
Developing countries
LDCs
Prime ministers
Working conditions
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Summary:The second big error is to engage in these bilateral deals in the first place. Mr [Peter Mandelson]'s task is to strengthen the multilateral system and bring the Doha development agenda to a successful conclusion. The objective of the multilateral system, as its name implies, is to be inclusive and its key principle is non- discrimination. Bilateral deals are by definition discriminatory and those that will lose out the most are poor countries and small and medium-sized enterprises. Bilateralism is an unfair Darwinian tactic to marginalise weak countries - so Mr Mandelson is pursuing bilateral deals with India and South Korea. But what about Laos, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the majority of the sub-Saharan economies and so on. Bilateralism
ISSN:0307-1766