WTO releases controversial draft documents

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, SEPT. 27. The World Trade Organisation yesterday circulated to country delegations in Geneva the first draft of a ministerial declaration for new trade liberalisation negotiations alongside another draft on the implementation issues raised by the developing countries. Both documents are the first steps in the final phase of negotiations for the Doha ministerial meeting in November and as controversial drafts both will not please India and other developing countries because there are few concrete commitments on implementation issues - the proposals to correct imbalances in the existing WTO agreements - even as the concise draft ministerial declaration has the ingredients of an ambitious negotiating agenda, while avoiding the emotive term ``new WTO round of negotiations.''

The two documents were released by Mr. Stuart Harbinson, Chairman of the WTO General Council, on the basis of negotiations with delegates from the developed and developing countries and will form the basis of negotiation for the Doha meeting, about which there is some uncertainty in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. though the WTO insists that the conference will be held as scheduled.

The draft agreement on implementation, on which negotiations have been going on for more than a year and have been the cornerstone of developing country concerns, divides the issues into three categories - those on which agreement is possible right away, subjects where agreement could be reached in Doha and finally those that have to be negotiated in future, possibly as part of a new round. While the draft covers all the implementation issues - quotas on textiles, anti-dumping, agriculture, subsidies, TRIPS and a number of other areas - the concrete commitments that the developed countries have been willing to make are no more than token.

The most important issues have been placed in the category of issues to be negotiated later, though the position of India and a number of developing countries has been that no new negotiations are possible unless the implementation issues are addressed up front.

The draft on new negotiations calls for fresh negotiations on industrial tariffs, government procurement and transparency but it reflects gaps on an agenda for new negotiations on a global investment treaty, on competition policies and most important on agriculture. Reflecting continued differences within the developed world, the text on agriculture merely lists the issues on which a consensus has to be reached on the negotiating agenda - the extent of subsidy reduction, the special treatment for developing countries and the timeframe for talks.

On foreign investment and competition policies, also contentious issues, two alternatives are proposed. One is to take up negotiations on a fairly ambitious agenda and the other to continue with the study programmes that have been going on since 1996 at the WTO. The draft ministerial declaration has little controversial clauses on trade and labour. On environment, an issue on which the European Union has strong views especially on food safety and eco-labelling, the WTO document has quieter language.

The timeframe for negotiations on what is for all practical purposes a proposal for an ambitious new WTO round has been left unstated but what has been included is the controversial ``single undertaking'' clause - an ``all or nothing'' provision that makes it difficult for developing countries to choose elements of the larger package. Unlike the unwieldy draft prepared on the eve of the doomed Seattle ministerial meeting this particular text is a concise nine-page document that makes it easier to narrow differences. Countries now have another six weeks to reach an agreement on the agenda for the next round.

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