The Hindu Business Line : WTO focuses on role of trade in globalisation

New Delhi, July 15 Even as the Doha Round of trade talks remain delicately balanced with the divide between developing and developed countries remain contentious on support to agriculture and industrial tariff cuts, a new report by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) highlights the role of trade in a world characterised by increasing dependence among nations over the last several decades.

In its World Trade Report, released in Geneva on Tuesday, the WTO Director General, Mr Pascal Lamy, asked “what may be done in the framework of international cooperation, including through the WTO, to mitigate the negative side-effects from positive change, and to what extent governments have a responsibility to mange change domestically”.

Lowering trade costs

Mr Lamy said much of what is obvious in the WTO context relates to the ongoing negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda. By bringing these negotiations to a close, the WTO members could contribute in several ways to lower trade costs and to improve the rules governing multilateral trade, thus increasing opportunities to gain from global integration.

He said the trade negotiations involving manufactured goods, agriculture and services could make a significant difference, while the work on trade facilitation also had the potential to yield high returns.

Mr Lamy said the aid for trade initiative of the WTO offers “unprecedented opportunity” for clarifying needs and coordinating action to ease trade-related supply constraints in developing countries.

More generally, “a balanced outcome and successful closure of the Doha Round would signal the commitment of governments to preserve harmonious trade relations and to beef up the trading system for the benefit of a more certain trading milieu and a healthier world economy.

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