The Doha Round finally tumbled over a large stone on its bumpy road. On July 24th WTO chief Pascal Lamy formally recommended suspension of talks and set no timetable for the resumption after the meeting collapsed among the six key trading powers: the U.S, EU, Japan, Australia, India and Brazil.

On Wednesday's People's Daily had regrets over the suspension but expressed hopes and belief that, for the sake of the fairness and prosperity of society, the suspension would not stop the process of economic globalization.

The impasse, as usual, is still caused by disagreement on tariffs, quotas, agricultural subsidies and the opening of the service sector and manufacturing.

The World Trade Organization is the largest trading system in human history and the most important organization in the era of economic globalization. Political expectation is embedded in economic globalization which is regarded as the historical opportunity for the world economic growth.

The Doha round, started in 2001, carries the unprecedented ambition for helping poor countries in the world. It symbolizes the chances of a harmonious human community. It represents 5.5 billion out of the 6.5 billion world's total and 97 percent of the world annual trade volume which amounts to US$ 13 trillion.

However, it is not easy to balance interests and expectations of the 149 members. There were concerns over possible deadlocks over technical disputes. And that was what really occured repeatedly. Negotiations were distracted and turned into a wrangle of political will concerning trade, human rights and globalization. They accused each other of being reluctant to make concessions. It is time to calm down and give deliberation about how practical the Doha is in today's world.

Although everyone agrees that free trade is a good concept, no one will take an indifferent attitude toward one's own interests. The tremendous gaps in development and market maturity among the members make it a particularly complicated task to balance the interests of them in multi-lateral talks in such a big trade framework.

Developed countries are not ready to forego more of their interest to materialize the prospect of the common prosperity of the world. The rapid rise of China, India and Brazil has impressed the world with the trend that the world economic power is shifting toward the developing nations from the developed nations. In the light of that, developed nations feel they are negotiating with rivals who are trying to catch up rather than who need assistance. That leads to profound disagreement that rich members insist on fair trade for their commercial interest while their poorer peers hope for a new order and the rich member's remedy for their past mistakes. The tough position that each party held at the Cancun conference was an example of this.

Many members have tried to seek bilateral or regional free trade agreement after the Doha disappointment, although there are criticisms that this practice may make the Doha talks even more difficult and hurt the disadvantaged even further. However the trend continues.

The failure of the Doha round this time again left regrets that the poor nations once more lost. The regret will last. The part deliberation of trade represented by bilateral and regional free trade will still be the best choice as long as a fair force is absent.

The Uruguay round in the GATT era in the 1980s' and 1990's has pushed the economic globalization forward by a big step. The current Doha impasse will not signalize the end of the times for multi-lateral trade.

Although political will has been outweighed by economic interests of individual countries, the Doha round itself offers perfect implications about the how great potential can be explored from economic globalization.

Editor: Yan