This paper argues that deadlock in the Doha Round of trade negotiations is due to the increasing complexity of economic globalization. It represents a transformative shift on the part of Member nations away from the current model of trade multilateralism and towards smaller negotiating platforms. We examine two main reasons for this changing pattern in international economic relations. First, with the rise of new global trading powers such as India, China and Brazil, the geopolitical playing field is in flux and the steady accumulation of political and market power in the global South has sapped the WTO’s forward momentum. The second factor in the decline of trade multilateralism is a cocktail of rigid rules, non-tariff protectionism, and a crisis of representation that throws sand in the institutional gears of multilateral trade. The paper concludes with a discussion of trade multilateralism in historical context. This is not the first time the world has been faced with systemic changes in international economic relations. In the 19th and the early 20th centuries, global trade broke down – first with the end of the British free trade system, and shortly thereafter with the catastrophic collapse of the interwar trading order. Nevertheless, this qualitative shift in the negotiating strategies of states need not be seen as a return to protectionism. The explosion of preferential trade agreements represents a compelling political and economic logic of mutual advantage, and may be a more effective way of addressing the social and political dimensions of economic integration.