The Hindu Business Line : Lamy upbeat on Doha trade talks

Talk pointer
Lamy up against a crucial June deadline when the special US legislation on the negotiations expires.
Says the real question is whether talks will benefit poor countries
Suspended talks gained some momentum since Feb after meetings in London, Geneva.

SPEED UP TRADE TALKS: The World Trade Organisation Director-General, Mr Pascal Lamy, and the Minister for External Affairs, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, at the inaugural session of a seminar on `Saving Doha and delivering on development' in the Capital on Monday. Mr Lamy repeated his call for negotiators to work out a Doha round trade deal before July, warning that a key window of opportunity is closing. "Time is not on our side, and many WTO members are becoming impatient." — Kamal Narang

New Delhi March 12 The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General, Mr Pascal Lamy, on Monday confidently said that the deadlocked global trade talks could be wrapped-up before a crucial June deadline when the special US legislation on the negotiations expires.

Addressing a news conference here on the sidelines of an international seminar on `Saving Doha and delivering on development', Mr Lamy said: "The prospects of closing the gap appears more plausible and probable than ever. There has been a pretty good movement and we have the opportunity of closing the gap by the end of June."

The Doha Round of multilateral trade talks have remained in suspension for quite sometime because developing countries, including India, have sought deeper cuts in tariffs on agricultural imports levied by rich nations, as well as hefty cuts in farm subsidies the rich world doles out to its farmers. However, since February, some modest momentum was gained following bilateral and small group meetings in London and Geneva.

The fate of the negotiations hang in the balance with the deadline in the US in June, when the `fast track" negotiations power of the US President, Mr George W. Bush, ends. The authority permits the President to present a single Bill to the Congress for approval instead of voting separately on all of the complex provisions of a global trade deal. But if the new Democratic leadership in Congress resolves not to renew the special powers, then any deal hammered out in the meanwhile risks being reviewed by US lawmakers, Mr Lamy said.

Developmental agenda

Earlier in his talks at the seminar, Mr Lamy argued that the Doha Round was a development one and the real question was "whether or not the results of this round translate into poor countries' increasing their level of development."

Chairing the inaugural session, the External Affairs Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, called for serious efforts to consolidate the development agenda of the Doha Round. "The biggest handicap is that we have not been able to develop benchmarks to facilitate a developmental audit of the progress of negotiations. We need to ensure that the development dimension stays in clear focus,'' he added.

In his remarks, the Union Commerce & Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, categorically said that even as the Doha Round negotiations need to be brought to a successful end, conclusion of the Round could not be at the cost of its content, which was to ensure a clear balance between market opening and the development needs of the majority of the membership of the WTO.

Fit to size

"There cannot be a one-size fits-all formula. We must ensure that the economies of Asian and African countries remain healthy. Otherwise, inequities of the existing system will hit trade flows from developed countries as people in developing countries will not have the purchasing power to buy goods and services from the developed world", he said. He appealed to the developed countries to show the necessary will to remove the distortions in the international agriculture market so that the negotiations could go forward.

Mr Kenneth Valley, Minister of Trade and Industry, Trinidad & Tobago emphasised the importance of special and differential treatment to developing countries, underpinning Mr Nath's remarks that a `one-size-fits- all' approach could not apply in WTO negotiations in view of the differing development needs of member countries.

The two-day global seminar is being hosted by the Ministry of Commerce in association with UNCTAD, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Oxfam International and National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER).