BRUSSELS, Nov 7: Negotiators from the World Trade Organisation’s 142 members face a tough five days in Doha, starting November 9, as they struggle to reach consensus on an agenda for new global talks to slash tariffs and expand faltering worldwide trade.
The message from WTO director general Mike Moore, the US and the European Union is clear: new WTO negotiations are needed to ward off recession and send a message of international solidarity in the campaign against terrorism.
“Launching a new global trade round is basically good news for the world economy”and the world economy today needs good news,” EU trade chief Pascal Lamy said this week. Added Moore: “The global downturn is focusing minds.”
The US message ahead of Doha is a mix of political and economic imperatives. Success in kick-starting new talks in Doha is not just crucial to boost flagging world economies but also to bolster support for the American-led anti-terror coalition, insists US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. “Trade is about more than economic efficiency,” Zoellick told US senators recently. It is also about “inclusiveness and integration and a hope for betterment for all peoples and lands.”
For more encouragement, listen to the World Bank. A report by the agency published last week insists that abolishing all trade barriers could boost global income by $2,800bn and lift 320m people out of poverty. With growth in rich countries slowing down post-September 11 to 1.1 per cent this year and developing countries’ growth likely to fall to 2.9 per cent, economies across the globe could do with some fillip from more dynamic trade flows, the World Bank insists.
If only it were that easy. While many developing nations are backing Washington and Brussels’ call for new WTO negotiations, others led by India say cannot take on new trade liberalisation obligations while still struggling to implement commitments made during the last world trade discussions - the 1994 Uruguay Round. EU officials say that both Pakistan and Malaysia have toned down their initial opposition to the WTO talks.
Similar rich-poor feuds - along with mass demonstrations by anti-globalisation protesters - resulted in the dismal failure of the WTO’s last ministerial meeting in Seattle in November 1999. This time around, Qatar has kept a strict lid on the number of non-governmental organisations allowed into the country during the week-long talks. The authorities have also promised to implement strict anti-terror security measures.
Still north-south divisions continue. Developing countries want faster moves to liberalise world textiles trade, help in implementing the 1994 Uruguay Round obligations and fear that EU moves to link trade and labour and trade and environmental issues will lead to new forms of protectionism.
Hoping to win over developing country opponents, EU trade chief Lamy has been insisting that Europe is committed to putting developing countries’ priorities at the centre of the WTO. Whether or not the new talks are labelled a “development round” as suggested by World Bank President James Wolfensohn and others, Lamy said it was clear that developing countries had acquired new clout and weight around the WTO table.
Ironically, however, for many WTO members it is the EU’s long list of demands - not to mention much-criticised European farm policies - which are likely to provoke most debate in Doha.
Preparing for battle, EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler warned before the WTO meeting, that Europe will “play fair, but play hard” in Doha. Calls for a complete elimination of EU farm subsidies made by Australia, Canada and developing nations were unacceptable because agriculture could not be treated like any other industry, Fischler warned.
Lamy, who will negotiate on non-farm issues in Doha, said the EU would fight equally hard to secure WTO agreement on starting negotiations linking trade and environmental issues. The EU also wants greater cooperation between the WTO and the International Labour Organisation on workers rights and labour standards and will also continue to insist on the need for WTO rules on competition policy and investments, Lamy said.
Lamy has promised, however, that the EU will use “discreet mediation” to end feuding between the US and Brazil, backed by other developing countries, over poor nations’ access to vital life-saving medicines.
