The Hindu Business Line : Glossing over

The Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, has done well to restore the balance of comment on the `challenges paper' presented recently in Geneva by Mr Crawford Falconer, chairman of the World Trade Organisation's agriculture negotiations body. The paper has been lauded as a clarion call to resume the Doha Round negotiation process, the WTO Director-General, Mr Pascal Lamy, saying the response to the paper showed that "we do indeed have an active multilateral process and that participants appear to be serious about negotiating within it."

There are two points of interest about the structure of the negotiations and the content of the talks. As for the `structure', there is a sense of relief (as expressed by the WTO chief) that the discussions are back at the `multilateral' level as opposed to the `closet level' conducted in recent months by four-five of the principal players, of which New Delhi is one. Whether an `active multilateral' process can deliver the goods vis-à-vis the Doha Round is yet to be seen, but the fact that `rump' negotiations have not been seen favourably by a large number of WTO members suggests that much time has been wasted on this approach and that, more importantly, the trust in the WTO ranks is not at a level which promises an early resolution of differences. As for the contents of the Falconer paper, while there has been a lot of opposition to it (as its author said, "the paper deliberately kicked just about as many shins as possible"), there is no justification in interpreting this as a sign of a renewed interest by members to forge an accord. On the contrary, as Mr Kamal Nath made it clear, the paper has made no substantive progress towards an agreement on farm issues which would uphold the `development agenda' of the Doha Round with special emphasis on protecting the interests of the poor economies. From the developing countries' perspective, the issue of trade-distorting subsidies has not been dealt with effectively by the Falconer paper or that of special treatment for selected products of interest to the poor nations, both being important areas where a resolution of differences is crucial to making the Doha Round see the light of day.

Earlier this month, Mr Lamy told WTO members that if they did not compromise soon, they would be "forced to confront the unpleasant reality of failure". Considering that the Non-Agriculture Market Access (NAMA) Negotiating Committee is yet to get off the mark with its own version of a Falconer paper, the prospects of success look as bleak as ever before, which would mean — in the words of the WTO chief — "foregoing the very significant package of trade-opening and rule-making that the (Doha) Round represents, and breaching the commitment which was taken to work for a more developing friendly world trading system."

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