WTO is not a global government: Maran

By C. Rammanohar Reddy

DOHA, NOV. 10. The Union Commerce Minister, Mr. Murasoli Maran, today reiterated India's opposition to a comprehensive new round of trade talks at the WTO that would deal with ``non-trade issues'' such as foreign investment, competition policies and environment, and asked the Doha ministerial conference to instead give a clear mandate for addressing the trade problems of the developing countries.

``The WTO is not a global government and should not appropriate to itself what legitimately falls in the domain of national governments and Parliaments,'' said Mr. Maran in his strongly- worded address to the plenary session of the ministerial conference which today began its substantive work of trying to reach an agreement on a ministerial declaration. The Commerce Minister said India and other developing countries ``are not ready to accept a new set of onerous commitments'' that will arise from negotiating agreements on non-trade issues. Mr. Maran said that while all countries wanted the Doha meeting to be a success, this should not mean the adoption of an agenda that would ``split'' the WTO membership. Mr. Maran added, ``rather than charting a divisive course in unknown waters, let this conference provide a strong impetus to the on-going negotiations on agriculture and services, and the various mandated reviews that by themselves form a substantial work programme and have explicit consensus.''

The first skirmish of the Doha meeting took place today over procedure when India and other developing countries raised questions about the process for negotiations and demanded assurances that non-transparent practices would not be followed and an agreement foisted on all the WTO members.

At the Committee of the Whole, the negotiating forum, six facilitators have been appointed by the Chairman of the conference, Mr. Yousef Hussain Kamal, the Minister of Finance of Qatar, to hold discussions with countries which have reservations on the subjects proposed for negotiation in a new round. Some countries fear that this will be similar to the nefarious ``green room'' process in which a few powerful members reach a deal that all countries then have to agree to.

But Mr. Pascal Lamy, the Trade Commissioner for the European Commission, told The Hindu that the negotiating process devised for Doha would be democratic, transparent and superior to what was followed in Seattle.

The procedure now is that after the facilitators report back to the Committee of the Whole on November 11, the ministers will have the next two days to reach a compromise on the ministerial declaration that is expected to shape the WTO's work programme over the next few years.

While the Indian position remains hostile to new negotiations outside what was mandated in 1994, some representatives of Indian industry worry if India has a back-up plan in case it finds itself alone at the end. Mr. Lamy in his plenary address repeated the E.U. demand for a comprehensive agenda and stated, ``we must ensure that we launch negotiations which bring short and long- term systemic benefits which are capable of conclusion within a short, preferably three-year time scale.''

The U.S. Trade Representative, Mr. Robert Zoellick, too had much the same message to delegates and reflected the optimism that ``an agenda for new global trade negotiations is within our collective grasp.''

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