Re-energising Doha
Pascal Lamy Director General of WTO and Doha negotiation addressing at FICCI said global economic crisis is spanning all countries North South rich and poor natural calamities are pouring a crisis threatens globe and undo eonomic growth erode public faith in International trade.
Commerce Minister, Mr. Anand Sharma said this is critical for future prosperity of developed and developing economies. He called upon the international community to work collectively to provide guidance for a clear road map of multilateral engagement for successful conclusion of Doha talks by 2010. He expressed confidence that meeting will provide the much needed impetus to the process. Mr.
Anand Sharma said, though many issues have been settled, but there are still gaps and large number of unresolved issues. He asserted that the present meet can collectively outline the way forward with a fair solution to these issues. The Commerce Minister said, the global community needs to look at various approaches to feed the multi-lateral process to reach a satisfactory solution. Mr. Sharma, however, cautioned that the risk of alienating any of the members cannot be taken as the process is based on the concept of inclusiveness and transparency.
The tone for the discussions in the conference, being attended by more than 40 ministers, was set by the WTO Director General Pascal Lamy. He expressed hope that the meeting will pave the way for conclusion of the Doha Round for a global trade pact. He asserted that it is only through a trade-opening global pact that issues like distorting subsidies or generating market access can be addressed. He noted that multilateral Doha Development Round is the only way to generate market access for goods and services or facilitating trade. AIR correspondent reports that farm subsidy in the developed countries and demand for market excess in under-developed countries is the focus of discussions.
New Delhi maintains that the draft modalities for agriculture prepared on 6th of December last year should be the basis to take the Doha process further. Many observers are hopeful that the informal meet may prove an important milestone in bridging the gap between the developed and developing nations, but there are skeptics also who say it is not a easy task .On the eve of talks, Australia described the engagement of India and the US crucial for the conclusion of Development round of talks in 2010. Some other countries maintain that the role of China and India will be crucial. Observers are watching keenly the out come of deliberations as addressing the contentious issues is a challenging task as it has been eluding consensus since 2005.
In view of the protests in the national capital, security around the venue has been heightened .Access to it has also been restricted and barricades put in place at the roads leading to it. Meanwhile, Indian People's Campaign against WTO organised a protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Veteran Farmers leader Mahinder Singh Takiat while talking to AIR accused the government of ignoring issues and problems being faced by the farmers .
- The two-day meeting of 35 trade ministers of the WTO-member countries began in New Delhi on Thursday with India underscoring the need to strengthen the multilateral regime to boost global trade.Inaugurating the meeting being attended by the ministers from the US, European commission, Brazil, South Africa and China among others, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said concluding the Doha round of negotiations is vital for strengthening the world trade.Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said global economy has been severely hurt by the financial crisis, an early conclusion of the Doha Round of Talks will expand the opportunities of all countries to take advantage of international trade, push forward global economic growth, raise confidence in a global economic revival, and successfully fend off trade protectionism.
India is hosting the ministerial meeting aimed at finding solutions for the early conclusion of the Doha Round to further open global trade which was of the order of USD 32 trillion in 2008.Blame game between developed world and developing countries are still to be thrashed out on various level of tariff.
Farmers,industry,labour,Auto industry,Environment and climate,service industries are varient topic to
mitigate in order to have free International trade in the betterment of global growth.
Commerce and Industry Minister said ,We are encouraged by your understanding and by your enthusiastic support for this initiative for the Delhi meeting. Your presence is a testimony of your commitment to the successful conclusion of the Doha Development Round and also underscores your faith in the robustness of the transparent, rule-based and democratic multilateral trading system that the WTO represents.
In less than a year, world leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to an early conclusion of Doha Round at Washington, London, Bali, Paris, L’Aquila, and Singapore. In their unanimity lies a message for us, which stresses the need and importance of a fair and equitable international trading system, which is particularly vital in the present challenging economic environment.
Leaders were united in their view that sustaining trade and investment flows is critical for the future prosperity of developed and developing economies alike. They recognised that one of the main threats to a revival of trade flows is the rising protectionist pressures, and continued delay in concluding the Doha Round. Therefore, strengthening the multilateral trading system by concluding the Doha Round at the earliest is vital is an imperative.
A question has been asked by some that why India took the initiative to host this meeting when Heads of State and Governments have already, in no uncertain terms, signaled what needs to be done. But let’s be frank in acknowledging that even the unequivocal expression of political resolve has not yet been translated into action. Many of you have shared your concerns with me over the imperceptible progress in re-energizing the negotiations. This feeling was also articulated when officials met in Geneva in July.
The economic crisis and the ensuing turmoil is rocking the global economy. Domestic pre-occupations of some Member Countries over the past twelve months has been another proximate reason for the pause in negotiations. But that was not all. We also realise that individually, the international groupings of nations from which declarations of support for the Doha Round have emanated, simply did not represent the full spectrum of the WTO membership. The Delhi meeting constitutes a microcosm of the entire WTO membership, representing all shades of opinion and interests. This would be the first occasion since July 2008 that such a meeting is taking place to give a determined push to the multilateral process.
Together, we need to work in this spirit and go beyond yet another reaffirmation and work together collectively to provide guidance for a clear road map of multilateral engagement in the months ahead, remaining conscious of the 2010 timeline. I trust that you would all agree that is the value addition this Ministerial meeting has to provide: this is what we must strive for.
I trust that you would all agree that this is neither the appropriate forum nor the opportune time to discuss specific issues in individual areas of the negotiations. That is best left to the multilateral process in Geneva. Instead, discussions here ought to mainly focus on the best way to spark the multilateral negotiations to move the Round to a quick closure. After all, the intention is to build a broad-based consensus on how Ministers would like to see the process of negotiation fast-tracked. Negotiators would be able to focus fully on technical issues only if we work together to remove the obstacles coming in the way of multilateral discussions and provide clear directions on how the multilateral process at the WTO can be re-energised.
I understand that senior officials who met yesterday have had a productive discussion and have identified some of the critical process issues which need to be addressed on priority if the Doha Round has to be concluded as envisaged by some leaders. I am sure you have been briefed by your senior officials about their discussions.
In some quarters, it has been suggested that most issues have been settled and we are almost in ‘end game’. However, if we look at the texts of modalities on NAMA and Agriculture alone, it would be apparent that there are still a few gaps and large number of unresolved issues. In some instances, the architecture of a solution is not yet fully in sight. In others, there still remain negotiating gaps that need to be sufficiently narrowed before Ministers can collectively outline the way forward come up with fair solutions.
All these issues need to be extensively discussed at the technical level by senior officials. This will take time and needs to be factored in when we decide on a schedule for the ensuing months to determine when Agriculture/NAMA modalities can be meaningfully concluded.
Suggestions for new approaches have generated much debate, may be at the cost of some negotiating capital. In light of the 2010 timeline, Ministers may like to reflect on the necessity for and the implications of changing a tried and tested process. While we follow the established process of multilateral negotiations, we need also to look at various approaches to feed the multilateral process to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
We must remain alive to the importance of inclusiveness and transparency of the process. These are indisputably key success factors for any strategy to conclude the Doha Round, particularly in a body of the size and diversity of the WTO. We cannot risk alienating any of those involved.
The fact that this is a Development Round bears repetition. The Doha Ministerial Declaration of 14 November 2001, while recalling the preamble to the Marrakesh Agreement stated “We shall continue to make positive efforts designed to ensure that developing countries and especially the least developed among them, secure a share in the growth of world trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development”. This mandate is the bedrock of the Doha Round. The final outcome must correct the historical distortions and address structural flaws in the global trading regime, while responding to the legitimate concerns and aspirations of the poor in the developing world.
We must also recall that the Ministerial mandate at Hong Kong emphasized the need to effectively and meaningfully integrate Least Developed Countries (LDCs) into the multilateral trading system.
The Ministerial mandate at Hong Kong also adopted a sequential approach to negotiations giving agriculture and NAMA frontal position to be followed by others. Since time is of the essence and in order to maintain a balance within the single undertaking, Members could also reflect on how, without departing from the Hong Kong mandate, we can consider moving other issues on the agenda forward. Can parallel negotiations in Services and other areas be taken on board in a more proactive manner?
In order to take the process at Geneva to its logical conclusion, engagement and close monitoring would be required, I am sure this will put our human resource capacities to severest test. This would also necessitate a more well thought out and agreed roadmap for overall negotiations as well as specifically for each segment of negotiations. Members may wish to reflect on how we intend to proceed to prepare this agreed roadmap. I request each of you to bear these issues in mind while making your statements and interventions.
Let me turn now to the structure of our programme over the next two days.
As you have seen from the agenda for today, we will begin with a Statement from DG Lamy. I am sure, we are all keen to hear his thoughts on the way forward. His single minded zeal and indefatigable efforts to bring the negotiations back on track, each time they faltered, have yielded rich dividends in the past.
I will then invite the Chairs of the Negotiating Groups on Agriculture, NAMA and Services to speak. There are of course, other equally important areas in the single undertaking but we are going by the sequence decided by Ministers at Hong Kong. The Agriculture and NAMA Chairs have already, in July this year, outlined how they propose to organize technical work in September. I am sure they will now be able to provide us all with some more details on that process.
The success of the WTO is, in large measure, attributable to the stellar role played by various coalitions. Without them, it would have been very hard to adhere to the WTO principles of transparency, inclusiveness and consensus-based decision-making. They have been the rallying force behind these negotiations and have been able to give voice to issues both large and small that may otherwise never have come to the fore. We will hear from each of them today.
We have also scheduled statements by some Members, interspersed with the group statements. I welcome and in fact, urge others who wish to make statements to please do so. It is with this in mind that we have intentionally avoided packing too much into our schedule, in the hope that this will lead to a better exchange of ideas.
We have left the agenda for tomorrow relatively unstructured at this stage so as to enable an open and candid discussion on the issues that Members would be flagging today.
I am confident that we will have a productive and useful engagement over the next two days and I look forward to working constructively with you all is a collective endeavour to build a broad-based consensus on the way forward.
Commerce Minister, Mr. Anand Sharma said this is critical for future prosperity of developed and developing economies. He called upon the international community to work collectively to provide guidance for a clear road map of multilateral engagement for successful conclusion of Doha talks by 2010. He expressed confidence that meeting will provide the much needed impetus to the process. Mr.
Anand Sharma said, though many issues have been settled, but there are still gaps and large number of unresolved issues. He asserted that the present meet can collectively outline the way forward with a fair solution to these issues. The Commerce Minister said, the global community needs to look at various approaches to feed the multi-lateral process to reach a satisfactory solution. Mr. Sharma, however, cautioned that the risk of alienating any of the members cannot be taken as the process is based on the concept of inclusiveness and transparency.
The tone for the discussions in the conference, being attended by more than 40 ministers, was set by the WTO Director General Pascal Lamy. He expressed hope that the meeting will pave the way for conclusion of the Doha Round for a global trade pact. He asserted that it is only through a trade-opening global pact that issues like distorting subsidies or generating market access can be addressed. He noted that multilateral Doha Development Round is the only way to generate market access for goods and services or facilitating trade. AIR correspondent reports that farm subsidy in the developed countries and demand for market excess in under-developed countries is the focus of discussions.
New Delhi maintains that the draft modalities for agriculture prepared on 6th of December last year should be the basis to take the Doha process further. Many observers are hopeful that the informal meet may prove an important milestone in bridging the gap between the developed and developing nations, but there are skeptics also who say it is not a easy task .On the eve of talks, Australia described the engagement of India and the US crucial for the conclusion of Development round of talks in 2010. Some other countries maintain that the role of China and India will be crucial. Observers are watching keenly the out come of deliberations as addressing the contentious issues is a challenging task as it has been eluding consensus since 2005.
In view of the protests in the national capital, security around the venue has been heightened .Access to it has also been restricted and barricades put in place at the roads leading to it. Meanwhile, Indian People's Campaign against WTO organised a protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Veteran Farmers leader Mahinder Singh Takiat while talking to AIR accused the government of ignoring issues and problems being faced by the farmers .
- The two-day meeting of 35 trade ministers of the WTO-member countries began in New Delhi on Thursday with India underscoring the need to strengthen the multilateral regime to boost global trade.Inaugurating the meeting being attended by the ministers from the US, European commission, Brazil, South Africa and China among others, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said concluding the Doha round of negotiations is vital for strengthening the world trade.Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said global economy has been severely hurt by the financial crisis, an early conclusion of the Doha Round of Talks will expand the opportunities of all countries to take advantage of international trade, push forward global economic growth, raise confidence in a global economic revival, and successfully fend off trade protectionism.
India is hosting the ministerial meeting aimed at finding solutions for the early conclusion of the Doha Round to further open global trade which was of the order of USD 32 trillion in 2008.Blame game between developed world and developing countries are still to be thrashed out on various level of tariff.
Farmers,industry,labour,Auto industry,Environment and climate,service industries are varient topic to
mitigate in order to have free International trade in the betterment of global growth.
Commerce and Industry Minister said ,We are encouraged by your understanding and by your enthusiastic support for this initiative for the Delhi meeting. Your presence is a testimony of your commitment to the successful conclusion of the Doha Development Round and also underscores your faith in the robustness of the transparent, rule-based and democratic multilateral trading system that the WTO represents.
In less than a year, world leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to an early conclusion of Doha Round at Washington, London, Bali, Paris, L’Aquila, and Singapore. In their unanimity lies a message for us, which stresses the need and importance of a fair and equitable international trading system, which is particularly vital in the present challenging economic environment.
Leaders were united in their view that sustaining trade and investment flows is critical for the future prosperity of developed and developing economies alike. They recognised that one of the main threats to a revival of trade flows is the rising protectionist pressures, and continued delay in concluding the Doha Round. Therefore, strengthening the multilateral trading system by concluding the Doha Round at the earliest is vital is an imperative.
A question has been asked by some that why India took the initiative to host this meeting when Heads of State and Governments have already, in no uncertain terms, signaled what needs to be done. But let’s be frank in acknowledging that even the unequivocal expression of political resolve has not yet been translated into action. Many of you have shared your concerns with me over the imperceptible progress in re-energizing the negotiations. This feeling was also articulated when officials met in Geneva in July.
The economic crisis and the ensuing turmoil is rocking the global economy. Domestic pre-occupations of some Member Countries over the past twelve months has been another proximate reason for the pause in negotiations. But that was not all. We also realise that individually, the international groupings of nations from which declarations of support for the Doha Round have emanated, simply did not represent the full spectrum of the WTO membership. The Delhi meeting constitutes a microcosm of the entire WTO membership, representing all shades of opinion and interests. This would be the first occasion since July 2008 that such a meeting is taking place to give a determined push to the multilateral process.
Together, we need to work in this spirit and go beyond yet another reaffirmation and work together collectively to provide guidance for a clear road map of multilateral engagement in the months ahead, remaining conscious of the 2010 timeline. I trust that you would all agree that is the value addition this Ministerial meeting has to provide: this is what we must strive for.
I trust that you would all agree that this is neither the appropriate forum nor the opportune time to discuss specific issues in individual areas of the negotiations. That is best left to the multilateral process in Geneva. Instead, discussions here ought to mainly focus on the best way to spark the multilateral negotiations to move the Round to a quick closure. After all, the intention is to build a broad-based consensus on how Ministers would like to see the process of negotiation fast-tracked. Negotiators would be able to focus fully on technical issues only if we work together to remove the obstacles coming in the way of multilateral discussions and provide clear directions on how the multilateral process at the WTO can be re-energised.
I understand that senior officials who met yesterday have had a productive discussion and have identified some of the critical process issues which need to be addressed on priority if the Doha Round has to be concluded as envisaged by some leaders. I am sure you have been briefed by your senior officials about their discussions.
In some quarters, it has been suggested that most issues have been settled and we are almost in ‘end game’. However, if we look at the texts of modalities on NAMA and Agriculture alone, it would be apparent that there are still a few gaps and large number of unresolved issues. In some instances, the architecture of a solution is not yet fully in sight. In others, there still remain negotiating gaps that need to be sufficiently narrowed before Ministers can collectively outline the way forward come up with fair solutions.
All these issues need to be extensively discussed at the technical level by senior officials. This will take time and needs to be factored in when we decide on a schedule for the ensuing months to determine when Agriculture/NAMA modalities can be meaningfully concluded.
Suggestions for new approaches have generated much debate, may be at the cost of some negotiating capital. In light of the 2010 timeline, Ministers may like to reflect on the necessity for and the implications of changing a tried and tested process. While we follow the established process of multilateral negotiations, we need also to look at various approaches to feed the multilateral process to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
We must remain alive to the importance of inclusiveness and transparency of the process. These are indisputably key success factors for any strategy to conclude the Doha Round, particularly in a body of the size and diversity of the WTO. We cannot risk alienating any of those involved.
The fact that this is a Development Round bears repetition. The Doha Ministerial Declaration of 14 November 2001, while recalling the preamble to the Marrakesh Agreement stated “We shall continue to make positive efforts designed to ensure that developing countries and especially the least developed among them, secure a share in the growth of world trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development”. This mandate is the bedrock of the Doha Round. The final outcome must correct the historical distortions and address structural flaws in the global trading regime, while responding to the legitimate concerns and aspirations of the poor in the developing world.
We must also recall that the Ministerial mandate at Hong Kong emphasized the need to effectively and meaningfully integrate Least Developed Countries (LDCs) into the multilateral trading system.
The Ministerial mandate at Hong Kong also adopted a sequential approach to negotiations giving agriculture and NAMA frontal position to be followed by others. Since time is of the essence and in order to maintain a balance within the single undertaking, Members could also reflect on how, without departing from the Hong Kong mandate, we can consider moving other issues on the agenda forward. Can parallel negotiations in Services and other areas be taken on board in a more proactive manner?
In order to take the process at Geneva to its logical conclusion, engagement and close monitoring would be required, I am sure this will put our human resource capacities to severest test. This would also necessitate a more well thought out and agreed roadmap for overall negotiations as well as specifically for each segment of negotiations. Members may wish to reflect on how we intend to proceed to prepare this agreed roadmap. I request each of you to bear these issues in mind while making your statements and interventions.
Let me turn now to the structure of our programme over the next two days.
As you have seen from the agenda for today, we will begin with a Statement from DG Lamy. I am sure, we are all keen to hear his thoughts on the way forward. His single minded zeal and indefatigable efforts to bring the negotiations back on track, each time they faltered, have yielded rich dividends in the past.
I will then invite the Chairs of the Negotiating Groups on Agriculture, NAMA and Services to speak. There are of course, other equally important areas in the single undertaking but we are going by the sequence decided by Ministers at Hong Kong. The Agriculture and NAMA Chairs have already, in July this year, outlined how they propose to organize technical work in September. I am sure they will now be able to provide us all with some more details on that process.
The success of the WTO is, in large measure, attributable to the stellar role played by various coalitions. Without them, it would have been very hard to adhere to the WTO principles of transparency, inclusiveness and consensus-based decision-making. They have been the rallying force behind these negotiations and have been able to give voice to issues both large and small that may otherwise never have come to the fore. We will hear from each of them today.
We have also scheduled statements by some Members, interspersed with the group statements. I welcome and in fact, urge others who wish to make statements to please do so. It is with this in mind that we have intentionally avoided packing too much into our schedule, in the hope that this will lead to a better exchange of ideas.
We have left the agenda for tomorrow relatively unstructured at this stage so as to enable an open and candid discussion on the issues that Members would be flagging today.
I am confident that we will have a productive and useful engagement over the next two days and I look forward to working constructively with you all is a collective endeavour to build a broad-based consensus on the way forward.
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