Sir, - Your Editorial of November 15th was astonishing in its complacent cheerleading for the recent negotiations in Doha for a new WTO round.
Nothing you presented gives any cause for celebration. Anti-globalisation protesters have asserted that the WTO is a mechanism by which the rich countries dominated the poor and the limited facts in your article clearly support this thesis.
Ireland (with France) successfully blocked any progress on reducing EU agricultural subsidies. To state that "that position sits uneasily with Ireland's commitment to high levels of development aid" is an enormous understatement. EU dumping of subsidised agricultural products on poor countries is destroying their farmers.
Glossing over the injustice of the WTO system may go down well with the wealthy "liberals" of south Dublin, but I just don't buy it. I need a newspaper that scrutinises, rather than applauds, the powerful. - Yours, etc.,
Phelim Murnion, Oranmore, Co Galway.