'Truant' nations

Trade experts and bureaucrats, who have for long questioned the efficacy of the negotiation process at ministerial conferences organised by the World Trade Organization (WTO), might have found a new backer. 

On a recent visit to India, Roberto Azevedo (pictured), the director general of the WTO, admitted that the last such multilateral conference arranged in Nairobi was “a disaster”. Azevedo said countries didn’t do their homework, leaving all discussions for the final few days of the conference. Sounding exasperated, he warned this might be repeated at another ministerial meet slated for the end of the year, if nations continued to play truant at the negotiations table.