The Hindu : WTO attempts to bridge gaps in negotiations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 24, 2003

International

International

WTO attempts to bridge gaps in negotiations

By C. Rammanohar Reddy

GENEVA July 23. With less than eight weeks to go before the fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation is convened in Cancun, Mexico, negotiators are still searching for compromises that would end the deadlock in the Doha round of trade talks. The many gaps in a draft ministerial declaration for adoption in Cancun in September, which was put out in the WTO late last week, have focussed attention on how wide the differences are between the member-countries on most items of the Doha agenda.

The Cancun Ministerial Conference has become critical for the future of the Doha round, scheduled to be completed in January 2005, because so little was achieved in the 18 months of talks after the launch of the round in November 2001.

The WTO ministerial draft expects, before the Cancun ministerial, a decision on the framework, or what is called the modalities, of trade liberalisation in agriculture. It also expects an agreement on the modalities of reduction of customs duties on industrial products. The "skeletal" text, as the WTO has described the draft, is to be fleshed out with agreements on other areas such as TRIPS and public health, where a 2001 declaration to relax some provisions on compulsory licensing of drug patents have been sabotaged by the global pharmaceutical industry. A "mini-ministerial" in Montreal next week of a select group of WTO members, including India, will be monitored for signals of a possible movement on some issues.

While dramatic all-round progress may seem unrealistic given that a deadlock has lasted for months, the recent decision within the European Union to reduce domestic subsidies has raised expectations of a breakthrough over the next few weeks. Since the impasse in agriculture has held back progress in many other issues on the Doha agenda, a solution here will push the talks in all areas. "The elephants are now talking to each other," said a developed country ambassador to the WTO, referring to the U.S. and the E.U., whose positions hold the key to a solution in agriculture. But there are others who see little chance of any immediate narrowing of the wide positions between the E.U. and the U.S, both of whom provide huge subsidies that they are expected to reduce. There are yet others that are worried that the two behemoths will strike a deal and then thrust it on the rest of the WTO membership, much as they did in 1993 during the closing days of the previous WTO/GATT round of talks.

There are many more issues which are proving just as contentious as agriculture. Of particular importance to India is the proposal to begin talks on a global agreement on foreign investment and the three other areas of competition policy, customs measures and transparency in government procurement, which together make up what are referred to as the Singapore issues. The only major decision that was originally scheduled to be taken at Cancun is on whether or not to begin formal talks on the Singapore issues, although there are some like the E.U. which would argue that the decision to negotiate treaties has already been taken. India has managed so far to stave off pressures to begin negotiations.

It is clear from the "skeletal" text that even as there are expectations that the gaps will be closed in some areas, others will be left for subsequent negotiations. The WTO bodies dealing with the proposals to correct problems in the existing GATT/WTO agreements (first raised by the developing countries in 1999) have been only asked to "redouble their efforts to resolve the issues." A few proposals providing special treatment to developing countries are to be agreed upon before Cancun and the rest to be taken up later.

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