Can Qatar pick up where Seattle left off?

Dismantling trade barriers is hard and controversial work. That was clear during the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle in 1999 that failed to launch a new round of world trade talks against a background of civil unrest. Subsequent meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund proved no easier. But it is also dear that greater openness has brought economic benefits to the world in recent years, and that further liberalisation would create more benefits, many of them accruing to the developing world.