Doha talks to resume September 14

WTO trade ministers have agreed that chief negotiators and senior officials would meet in Geneva for a week beginning September 14, to carry forward the Doha round of talks that had begun in 2001.

The consensus at the end of the two-day ministerial meeting of more than 30 WTO member countries was that the negotiation for a global free-trade pact must be concluded by the end of 2010.

“The impasse in resuming the negotiation has been broken,” commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said in New Delhi. The delegation met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday evening to convey their decision to resume talks.

But, differences between the member countries remained over the content, substance and the technicalities of the negotiation that was begun in 2001.

Among others, Celso Amorim, external relations minister of Brazil, said that developing countries “have no more room for further concessions” to rich nations. While developing countries do not want to open their markets to ‘cheap’ crops from rich nations, developed countries are opposed to the idea of abandoning agricultural subsidies.

More than a year ago, in July 2008, WTO talks had collapsed in Geneva, when India and some other countries had opposed agriculture subsidies offered by developed nations to their farmers. The opposition was based on the assumption that the subsidy may result in making the produce of the developing countries more expensive, thereby distorting trade.

The two-day meeting that ended in New Delhi on Friday was the first attempt to revive the talks after the Geneva negotiations had collapsed.

On the concluding day of the New Delhi ministerial meeting, which was being referred to as a mini-Doha round, it was apparent that not many had budged from their stated positions on the talks.

From the Indian side, senior officials in the commerce and industry ministry indicated that the country’s stand had not changed.

Earlier in the day, the US made it clear that the gap between the objectives of the developed and the developing world was as wide as before. US trade representative Ron Kirk said the Doha talks drafts were still full of blanks, and WTO members had not come to a consensus. “It has never been our argument that we should start all over again or reopen them, but we have to have some idea of what those gaps and blanks are,” he said.
When quizzed about the American view on Doha negotiations, commerce minister Anand Sharma replied, “My press briefing is not a rejoinder to the statements made by individual countries.”

On whether India was showing flexibility in the negotiation process now by hosting the ministerial meeting ahead of the Geneva talks, Sharma pointed out, “India is not showing flexibility, but the country is showing leadership.” He added, “India stands firm where it has always been.”

According to the commerce minister, “the objective of the New Delhi meeting was to re-energise the Doha process, and I can say that all countries have endorsed it.” Sharma admitted that “there are negotiating gaps. If there were no gaps, the Doha round would have been concluded earlier.”

On the issue of the developed world asking emerging countries to increase their market access, Sharma pointed out that the objective of the Doha Round was to be fair and equitable to all, especially the poor. Doha talks must address the concerns of the poor and the developing countries, he said.

In the current backdrop of economic slowdown, “any protectionism will only delay the recovery process,” Sharma said, referring to the US stand.

Kirk, while dismissing the fears of many emerging countries that the US did not want to proceed with talks, had said that nations like India, China and Brazil must do more to open their markets. “Most global growth in the coming years would come from those states, and they have to offer access to poorer developing countries as well as rich nations if the Doha round is to live up to its development goals.”

“We have missed so many deadlines,” Kirk told a press conference in the morning.
But he reaffirmed America’s commitment to the Doha Round. “Substance will drive this process, not setting deadlines and timelines,” he said. “Our leaders have set as a stretch goal 2010. A lot of hard work has to be done for that target to be reached.”