THE STATE OF DOHA ROUND MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS AND THE POSITIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

The Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations, if completed, will become the longest round in the history of multilateral trade negotiations. Since 2011 it is possible to identify efforts to revitalise negotiations, whereby actual situation differs from the one in 2008, when negotiations collapsed for the last time. Current agricultural prices may help facilitate compromise in the area of the agricultural negotiations; on the other hand the European Union and the United States require a compromise in the area of sectoral negotiations as a condition sine qua non conclusion of the negotiations. Above average unilateral trade liberalisation of developing countries in these sectors justifies demands of the European Union and the United States for a specific approach in this area for ambitious outcomes of the negotiations. The article describes contemporary state of negotiations with emphasis on the positions of the European Union.