What the diplomats can't fix, expect the lawyers to challenge

■"A Warning Of Trade Suits Over Farming," by Alexei Barrionuevo, New York Times, 30 November 2005, p. C1.

If the Doha Round talks fail in Hong Kong, experts warn that there will be many more suits in the WTO like the one Brazil successfully brought against the U.S. over cotton subsidies.

Administration negotiators say the crop subsidies most likely to be targeted in suits are exactly the ones the Bush White House is proposing to slash.

Makes sense, on both sides of that argument. Bush makes his try politically, and if that doesn't work out of the usual protectionist fears fanned by some in Congress and the Lou Dobbs of the media, then expect New Core powers like Brazil to teach us plenty more painful lessons in the WTO adjudication process.