GENEVA -- With only a few months left before the go or no-go decision has to be made, it is looking less and less likely that a new round of international trade negotiations will be launched when world-trade ministers meet in November in Doha, Qatar.
New flexibility shown by the United States, the European Union and governments in the Third World on long-divisive issues has not been sufficient to bridge national differences. The tradeoffs necessary to agree on a negotiating agenda have not jelled. Moreover, there is growing distrust of Brussels' intentions and mounting frustration with Washington's lack of leadership.
At the same time, the Democratic Party's regaining control of the U.S. Senate will make it even tougher for the Bush administration to obtain trade-negotiating authority, which many see as a prerequisite for launching a new round. Its not too early to begin devising a fallback plan to launch talks in the first half of 2002.