INTRODUCTION

Launched on November 14, 2001, the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations has experienced a lot of bumps and setbacks along the way. In late July of 2008, the Doha Round collapsed yet again after disagreement over trigger levels for special safeguard mechanisms (SSMs). The Doha Development Agenda (DDA) was supposed to put development at the center of trade negotiations and address the needs and concerns of developing countries. However, the failure to meet the deadlines set out in the Doha Ministerial Declaration and subsequent deadlines, and entrenched North–South divide over important issues in the agricultural negotiation, cast serious doubt on the commitments of World Trade Organization (WTO) member states to a true development-oriented outcome. Given the proposals on the table, important issues that have been left out of the discussions, and new trade-distorting and trade-restricting measures emerging in many industrialized economies in the wake of the global financial crisis, it would appear that the development objective of the Doha Round has been significantly watered down if not completely abandoned. With continuing delays in negotiations and as the development dividend of current proposals comes under increasing scrutiny, countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly the least developed countries (LDCs) among them, must begin to explore alternative paths to improving their trade performance and meeting their development objectives.

For Africa as a whole, several questions must be asked. Will the Doha Round provide real opportunities for advancing the continent's trade and development interests?