Doha Round: the major absentee

It is not particularly easy to write about a conference without knowing what it will be discussing. With about two months still to go, the only sure thing is that it will take place from 15 to 17 December in Geneva. This may well be good for institutional stability, as WTO regulations require that a Ministerial Conference be held every two years. But to get any idea of content, one would have to turn to a crystal ball.

What does seem certain is that the Doha Round will not be an official topic even though its spectre will haunt the assembled Ministers day and night. Ten years after its launch the Round is clinically dead. But no country will dare to say that openly for fear of sounding like a gravedigger. The complete stalemate is largely the result of United States demands that emerging countries should lower customs tariffs on whole industrial sectors to zero.

No early harvest in sight

At the time of the 2009 Ministerial Conference, Alliance Sud had suggested terminating the Doha Round and focusing on the trade-related aspects of the most pressing issues of the day (see box). WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy adopted a similar line this spring. When it became clear that Doha would by no means be concluded this year, he suggested a three-step approach. The agreements already reached on partial aspects of the Doha Round that would benefit the poorest countries should be implemented immediately. These include free access to the markets of industrialized countries, simplified rules of origin, lower cotton subsidies and the exclusion of services from liberalization.

WTO Members should then strive to reach consensus on those issues on which their standpoints are not too far apart. These include the trade in environmental goods and services, export and fisheries subsidies and the review of «special and differential treatment of developing countries». Lastly, the very controversial topics should then be tackled – such as market access for agricultural and industrial products and services, or the TRIPS agreement (intellectual property). Lamy had hoped to have the first two partial packages sewn up in time for the December Ministerial Conference.

«WTO is not Doha»

It became clear this summer that not even the early harvest for the benefit of the poorest countries is possible. Hence, out of fear, among others, of textiles from Bangladesh, the USA opposed duty and quota-free market access for the poorest countries and also rejected any reduction of cotton subsidies.

Representatives of the poorest countries see the failure of the Doha Round as a disaster. The representative of South Africa too stressed that the Round must be concluded and at least the agricultural goods trade should be newly regulated.

Switzerland has joined some 20 other countries that have a special interest in the continuation of a multilateral trading system to form the «Friends of the System» group. «We have no magic wand», says Remigi Winzap, Switzerland's chief negotiator at the WTO. «But we must consider how the WTO can be strengthened beyond the Doha Round. After all, the WTO is not Doha».

Isolda Agazzi, Alliance Sud

Article published in: Alliance Sud News No. 69, Autumn 2011

Box

WTO agenda for the 21st century

i.a. Alliance Sud had already suggested at the time of the 2009 WTO Ministerial Conference that the agreements already reached in favour of the poorest countries should be implemented and the Doha Round then be terminated. That would create the space for addressing the trade aspects of crucial topical problems. In the meantime, WTO Chief Pascal Lamy has said that the WTO ought to tackle issues such as currency exchange rates, climate change, food security and energy.
Switzerland is particularly keen to bring the «Singapore issues» back to the negotiating table. These have to do with the liberalization of public procurement, investments and competition law. The developing countries had already rejected these topics at the 2003 WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun.

Published in: Alliance Sud News No. 69, Autumn 2011