Protectionism and economic nationalism have dominated the policy and public discussion about tackling the economic crisis in the last few weeks – the EMF has played a role in the debate.

After the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) could not provide satisfactory results regarding agricultural import rules, the negotiations broke down in July 2008. This is due to the insurmountable divide on major issues, such as agriculture, industrial tariffs and non-tariff barriers, services, and trade remedies between the most developed nations led by the European Union, the United States and Japan on the one hand, and the major emerging countries such as India, Brazil, China and South Africa on the other hand.