The Hindu Business Line : Don't give up on Doha Round

The collapse of the WTO talks on the Doha Round in Geneva showed that the members were "far from the necessary convergence to be able to establish modalities in agriculture and NAMA, despite all the hard work put in by everyone." The only good news is that no one appears `to want to throw in the towel'.

The home page of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) doesn't mince words. It opens with this line: "We are now in crisis. Director-General to try to break impasse." Adjacent to this posting about Pascal Lamy's quote stands a stylish `d', as the logo of the Doha Development Agenda, a.k.a. the Doha Round.

This Round has been the focus of global attention and also the subject of varied statements about its fate. For instance, Irish Independent observes in a report `Three hours ago,' that the Doha Round of WTO negotiations has been left in turmoil `following the collapse of the talks in Geneva on Saturday.' China Daily rues: "A familiar stand-off between major trading nations has further dampened hopes for real progress in the Doha Round of trade talks." And Vanguard, Nigeria wonders, "So is the Doha Round dead and buried?"

As if to balance, there are instances of non-gloomy outlook too. Taipei Times cites José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, that the `Doha Round can be salvaged'. National Business Review, New Zealand reports: "A breakthrough at the Doha round of world trade talks is still possible, according to Prime Minister Helen Clark."

And, there are statements from the US trade representative Susan Schwab, such as, "We are disappointed but we will not be deterred," and the deadlock "does not mean that the Doha is dead."

Apt it would be for a zero base on Doha Round, which is currently doing liberal rounds on the news circuit. "The Doha round of WTO negotiations began in November 2001," informs Wikipedia.

"The purpose was to agree on the Doha Development Agenda, and from there negotiate opening agricultural and manufacturing markets," making trade rules fairer for developing countries. `Round' means `a multilateral trade negotiation,' explains `Glossary of Trade-Related Terms' on www.worldbank.org.

"There have been eight rounds: Geneva (1947), Annecy (1949), Torquay (1950-51), Geneva (1955-56), Dillon (1960-61), Kennedy (1963-67), Tokyo (1973-79) and Uruguay (1986-94). A ninth multilateral negotiation was launched in Doha, Qatar at the end of 2001."

Focus on developed countries' interests

The November 2001 declaration of the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha provided the mandate for negotiations on a range of subjects, states www.wto.org. "The negotiations include those on agriculture and services, which began in early 2000." Ministerial Conference is the top-most decision-making body of the WTO, and it has to meet at least every two years. "It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions. The Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements."

The Ministerial declaration, adopted on November 14, 2001 recognised that the majority of WTO members are developing countries. "We seek to place their needs and interests at the heart of the Work Programme adopted in this Declaration," said the world ministers.

The work programme in the Declaration dealt with 21 subjects, including agriculture, services, non-agricultural market access (NAMA), trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement, dispute settlement, environment, electronic commerce, and transfer of technology.

The original mandate came to be `refined' through meetings in Cancún (2003), Geneva (2004), and Hong Kong (2005). "The Fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancún, Mexico, in September 2003, was intended as a stock-taking meeting where members would agree on how to complete the rest of the negotiations."

Singapore issues

But that was not to be, because of `discord on agricultural issues, including cotton'. The result was a log jam on the `Singapore issues' — a phrase that refers to four working groups set up during the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1996 in Singapore, viz. investment protection, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation, as http://en.wikipedia.org informs.

After the Cancún standoff, Geneva got busy putting the negotiations and the rest of the work programme back on the rails. "Real progress on the Singapore issues and agriculture was not evident until the early hours of August 1, 2004 with a set of decisions in the General Council (sometimes called the July 2004 package)," notes WTO.

Then came the Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, in December 2005. "The final declaration included agreement on a range of questions, which further narrowed down members' differences and edged the talks closer to consensus."

Interestingly, a new `timetable' was agreed on for 2006, according to which the members resolved to finish the negotiations before the year closed, though the original deadline (January 1, 2005) had already been missed.

Summing up on December 18, 2005, Mr Lamy had spoken of `rebalancing in favour of developing countries' achieved by placing their interests at the heart of negotiations as was done in 2001 when the Round was launched.

"And more importantly, we have built the political energy necessary to advance technically during 2006, and believe me, there will be plenty to do next year," he assured. "We now have enough fuel in the tank to cruise at the right negotiating altitude now."

But the mood altitude on July 1 was low, with Mr Lamy conceding that we are "far from the necessary convergence to be able to establish modalities in agriculture and NAMA, despite all the hard work put in by everyone." The `only good news' he could offer was that no one appears `to want to throw in the towel'.

The pathological definition of a crisis is a sudden change, for better or worse, analyses The Guardian in a July 4 article on the Doha crisis. "In a critical case, either the patient recovers or dies," it adds. Let's hope our patient continues to live on.

ZeroBase@TheHindu.co.in