IV. Underlying dynamics of Doha Round’s failure
Despite apparent convergence of economic interests of the labor sending and receiving
countries, and despite Mode 4 apparently provides a credible window of opportunity
for cross-border labor mobility, the reality is that the WTO negotiations under the
Doha Round failed to make any tangible progress in this regard. Economics tell us that
productive factors move, when they are permitted to, from nations where they are
abundant (low productivity) to nations where they are scarce (high productivity), but
cross-border mobility of workers has so far failed to follow the economic logic of factor
movement. The following factors may provide an explanation for this setback.