Welcome back, WTO

THE World Trade Organisation is back in business.

Just when it seemed that the WTO had reached a dead end after 12 years of failed or stalled negotiations on the Doha Round of trade talks, it managed to conjure up a deal in Bali over the weekend.

Not the mega-trade deal that was envisioned when the Round was launched at Doha in 2001, but a limited agreement that centres mainly on trade facilitation - that is, on cutting red tape that prevents, or slows down, trade at the border and within countries.