Bank crash puts Doha back in spotlight

Concluding the now-stalled Doha trade negotiations is increasingly critical as the global financial crisis spreads, the heads of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said the morning after stocks tumbled worldwide on news of failure of the Lehman Brothers investment bank. Sharing the podium at Unctad’s annual Trade and Development Board, Unctad secretary-general Supachai Panitchpakdi and WTO director-general Pascal Lamy said reaching agreement on the seven-year-old negotiations would inject confidence and order into shaken economies and financial markets. “We are told that this is one of the most serious crises we’ve seen in the past 60 or 70 years. There must be some better rules and regulations to help the financial system as rules help the trading system. Unfettered market mechanisms have led to crises every few years” Supachai told the meeting.