The latest World Trade Organisation summit on a limited deal to free up global trade recently concluded in Bali. It had the potential, if it failed yet again, to make or break the Doha round once and for all. Happily, it succeeded in keeping alive the hope of a broader agreement to create a level playing field for rich and poor countries.
Delegates from the 159 WTO members finally approved a "facilitation" deal to ease trade barriers, centred on the streamlining of the cross-border passage of goods by cutting red tape and bureaucracy.
This deal alone could boost the world economy - by US$1 trillion eventually, according to one estimate. According to the US-based Petersen Institute, it could boost trade enough to create more than 20 million jobs, half of them in East Asia.
Domestic political considerations - such as social and political stability that have prevailed in the Doha round from the beginning - almost torpedoed the agreement. India was especially concerned about the impact on grain subsidies for the poor. The issue was defused with a temporary dispensation from subsidy limits.
The postwar concept of global multilateralism depends on elusive unanimity among WTO members. It has been increasingly bypassed by about 250 regional free-trade agreements, 70 per cent of them reached in the past 10 years, including the China-Asean FTA.
The US, China and Europe have been pursuing alternative, more comprehensive regional trade and investment pacts, such as the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership of 12 countries led by the US. Such deals driven by major economies tend to disadvantage poorer countries.
It would be fairer to them, and good for global trade, if the unanimity rule were relaxed to allow large groups of WTO members to strike deals to level the playing field within the organisation's structure. Other members could join in these agreements later.