The Hindu : PM for benchmarks to evaluate Doha Round `outcomes'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 02, 2003

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PM for benchmarks to evaluate Doha Round `outcomes'

By Amit Baruah

The French President, Jacques Chirac, making a point to the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the terrace of the Hotel Royal in the French lakeside resort of Evian, venue of the G8 Summit, on Sunday. — AFP

EVIAN (France) June 1. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today said it was "going to become impossible" in most developing countries to "secure political support" for any further trade liberalisation measures if "often stated goals" in the fields of trade, environment and resource generation for development were not implemented.

Intervening in Hindi at the first-ever "extended dialogue" of the G-8 plus 12 developing countries here, he said: "It is quite clear that developing countries are deeply disappointed by the progress so far on the Millennium Development Round since the Doha meeting nearly two years ago."

Mr. Vajpayee minced no words when he said that the non-ratification of the Kyoto protocol on climate change had unfortunately stalled the "Clean Development Mechanism" for investment and technology flows to developing countries in exchange for carbon credits.

"This has seriously impeded many developing countries' programmes for renewable energy and energy conversation to reduce the greenhouse gas intensities of their economies. We have to find ways of implementing the Clean Development Mechanism even if the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol is delayed," he said as anti-U.S. and anti-globalisation activists kept security personnel busy.

The Prime Minister, who joined leaders of China, Nigeria, Malaysia and Brazil (among other developing nations), said there was a need to arrive at some benchmarks for monitoring and evaluating the "outcomes" of the Doha Round.

Some benchmarks, he suggested, could be: the rapid elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to developing country exports, the phase-out of trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and removal of barriers to agricultural exports while ensuring the livelihood of billions of farmers in developing countries.

The removal of visa and non-visa obstruction to the free movement of natural persons for providing services as well as broader access of developing countries to pharmaceuticals (in the context of restrictive patent regimes) were some of the other points made by Mr. Vajpayee in this context.

Saying that he was happy that special attention was being focussed at these meetings to help African countries, the Prime Minister proposed that these facilities be extended to other, similarly-placed developing countries.

"Poverty, disease, malnutrition and hunger do not distinguish between continent, country, colour or creed. Their counteraction also should not make such distinctions."

Mr. Vajpayee appeared a bit soft on the issue of calling upon the developing world to fulfil international responsibilities to help provide funds where needed.

He merely said that "external augmentation" was required since developing countries could not fund economic growth merely through their savings.

"We also have to address the problem of unrestrained resource flows, which can — as the East Asia crisis showed — shatter the economy of developing countries," he said reiterating a proposal that he made at the February Non-Aligned Movement summit to "seriously consider" the idea of a small levy on international flows.

On environmental issues, the Prime Minister underlined that the Convention on Biological Diversity had failed to transfer technologies to developing countries in return for their biodiversity resources.

"I believe we need to seriously examine the concept of adequate user fees to developing countries for access to their biodiversity resources. Similarly, the traditional knowledge of communities should be acknowledged as valuable intellectual property. They could charge a fee from commercial users for the development and conversation for the development and conservation of such knowledge over millennia.

"Perhaps, we should develop a broader approach to the system of user fees on global environmental resources, which would contribute to their conservation, while simultaneously generating funds for development... "

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