By JOSEPH KAHN | REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK DOHA, Qatar, Nov. 11 ?World trade ministers say they fear that they will deliver a shock to the world economy unless they agree to liberalize trade at their meeting here. But the only shocking thing may be if they manage to agree on anything at all.
The World Trade Organization, the umbrella trade body, is sometimes described as the ultimate capitalist club, but it is far from exclusive. It has 144 members ?with the addition of China and Taiwan this weekend ?including many of the poorest as well as the richest countries. The United States, Uruguay and Uganda have exactly the same voting power, which is none.
Voting is forbidden. Even the United Nations General Assembly's rule of one country one vote smacks of a tyranny of the majority to ministers here. The trade organization operates by consensus, meaning that the smallest holdout can in principle sink the weightiest agreement.
If discussions get that far, that is. Two years ago in Seattle, the last time the organization called together its sponsors for what it calls a ministerial, delegates never fully agreed on procedures for deciding if they agreed on the trade issues at stake.
Some poor countries complained bitterly about a so-called green room, where selected delegates haggled over details. Though anything they decided there was liable to be rejected by the all-inclusive plenary, talk of conspiratorial cabals felled the entire enterprise.By JOSEPH KAHN:
