June 20, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 04, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 19: Almost 75 per cent of developing countries trade negotiators believe the Doha Round of WTO has failed in its mandate to bring development to the world’s poorest countries.

This was the outcome of a survey carried out by ActionAid and released here on Tuesday.

The researchers of ActionAid spoke to 40 delegates in Geneva last week — from African, Caribbean, Latin American and Asian countries - currently representing their countries as part of this round of trade talks, which were launched in the Qatari capital in 2001.

Besides the promises like protecting smallholders and phasing out of farm subsidies, the declaration at the end of the Doha summit stated that this round of talks would promote ‘growth and development’ and that the WTO would seek to put the needs of developing countries ‘at the heart of its work’.

In its anonymous survey, ActionAid asked negotiators: In your opinion, is the development agenda of the Doha Round being fulfilled in the current negotiations? 28 negotiators answered no, nine said it was too early to tell and only three said yes.

This confirms our worst fears about the direction of these talks, said Aftab Alam Khan, Head of ActionAid’s trade justice campaign.

“Rich countries promised to make the Doha Round a mechanism for fighting poverty. Instead it is remained a forum where the rich make the rules and poor face the consequences. With this in mind, developing countries would be well advised to walk away from the table,” he said.

The EU, US, Brazil and India on Tuesday started their meeting in Potsdam, Germany to try to thrash out a deal, but campaigners have criticised the WTO process for not including the world’s poorest nations in the negotiations.

ActionAid’s Africa Director Chris Kinyanjui said African countries were clearly not happy with the process and the G4 meeting will prove their point. “The big guns of the WTO are much happier forcing through deals at exclusive meetings than they are coming to the negotiating table with all parties to come up with a fair deal”.

An African delegate observed that the development agenda was behind closed doors now. This was why we were concerned.

A Middle Eastern delegate told the researcher that the developed countries were backtracking on their commitments in the ministerial mandate and they were trying to rewrite the rules in the middle of the game, in Agricultural and Non Agriculture Market Access. They tend to also be heavy handed in the services sector. In services' they want to have the whole cake. "You give me, I don’t give you."