One of the more unpredictable events of the new year was the apparent revival of interest in the Doha round of global trade talks, largely written off as a concern in the short and medium term after they were put into cold storage last July.
The EU and US recently both expressed optimism that they could settle their differences on farm trade, which would remove at least one of the many blockages to the round. Doha may have been taken out of the cryogenic deep freeze, but whether it will come to life once it has thawed remains unclear. While talks have been continuing behind the scenes, public evidence of progress so far remains almost entirely rhetorical
