The Doha Development Agenda (DDA), also known as the Doha Development Round, is a trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), launched in November 2001 at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar. It is a concept and scheme for achieving major reforms in the international trading system by lowering global trade barriers. The DDA was created to address the problem of a global trading system perceived to disadvantage developing nations, with the explicit aim of putting the priorities of less developed countries at the heart of the negotiations.
The mechanism of the DDA involves negotiations across a wide range of issues, including trade facilitation, services, rules of origin, and dispute settlement. A core provision is the reform of agricultural subsidies and tariffs, which developed countries like the US and the EU maintain, and which developing countries, led by nations like India and Brazil, seek to reduce or eliminate. The agenda also focuses on providing Special and Differential Treatment for developing countries. The DDA connects directly to the WTO and is the successor to the Uruguay Round of trade talks. Related concepts include the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
While the negotiations largely stalled after the breakdown of the July 2008 talks, the DDA is still officially "on paper". Significant progress was achieved at the Nairobi Ministerial Conference (MC10) in December 2015, where WTO members agreed to eliminate agricultural export subsidies. The Trade Facilitation Agreement, which aims to simplify customs procedures, was a major outcome of the Bali Ministerial Conference (MC9) in 2013. The Doha Ministerial Declaration of 2001 continues to guide the WTO's work on special and differential treatment, as reaffirmed at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in 2022.