The collapse of trade talks at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Cancun represents a significant setback for efforts to reach a new global accord by 2005, says a Duke University professor who is an expert on economic globalization.

"A new assertiveness on the part of developing countries, inflexibility on the part of the European Union and the United States, and the sheer complexity of the process and the issues all played their role" in the collapse, says Frederick W. Mayer, associate professor of public policy studies and political science at Duke's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

Mayer says gains made at the previous WTO conference, held in November 2001 in Doha, Qatar, "are not dead yet. As tempers cool, parties on all sides will recognize that failure is in no one's interests. Negotiations will likely quietly resume in Geneva, but as Cancun demonstrates, there is a huge task ahead."

Mayer is author of the book, "Interpreting NAFTA: The Science and Art of Political Analysis" (Columbia University Press, 1998). Mayer may be reached for further comment at (919) 613-7338, or fmayer@duke.edu.