The Hindu Business Line : Doha: Oxfam warns of raw deal to poor

Major concerns
The report states unreasonable demands on non-agricultural market access and services must be removed.
It said following the failure by WTO members to make significant progress this week in Geneva, Oxfam apprehends that the European Union and the US brinkmanship had sidelined development concerns.

New Delhi , April 27

A new report by the non-governmental organisation Oxfam has said the combination of disappointing offers on agriculture and aggressive demands on industrial liberalisation and services by rich countries could make many developing countries worse off in the ongoing trade talks under the Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

In a report "A Recipe for Disaster", released here today, the Oxfam warns that by limiting the flexibility necessary for countries to use trade policy as a tool for development, the new WTO deal could destroy livelihoods, prevent industrialisation and lock people into perpetual poverty. It said following the failure by WTO members to make significant progress this week in Geneva, Oxfam apprehends that the European Union and United States brinkmanship had sidelined development concerns. Unless offers change markedly in the next three months, poor countries would be better off continuing to negotiate, rather than signing a deal this year, it said.

New deal

The report said that while a new deal is badly needed, current offers are not good enough and poor countries would be better off missing the 2006 deadline and holding out for better offers. Reforms agreed in Hong Kong as part of a so-called development package are not sufficient to cancel out the damage in other areas. Export subsidies would be stopped in 2013 but they only represent 3.6 per cent of the EU spending on agriculture and should have been eliminated earlier.

Too restricted

Duty and quota free market access for the poorest countries is too restricted and `aid-for-trade' offers are largely made up of recycled pledges.

The report states point blank that for a deal to be acceptable it must include deeper cuts to rich countries trade-distorting farm subsidies and better market offers. Developing countries must have the right to regulate, to preserve policy space and to sequence liberalisation in a way that serves development objectives. Unreasonable demands on non-agricultural market access and services must be removed and the principles of special and differential treatment and less than full reciprocity must be observed, according to Oxfam.

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