IPS | By Kalinga Seneviratne | October 15, 2001
SINGAPORE - The fourth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) scheduled next month in Doha may end up being described as setting a 'new development agenda' and not just yet another 'new round' of trade talks.
That is, if the trade ministers from 21 leading WTO member-countries who met here on the weekend will have their way.
Singaporean Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo, who chaired the two-day meeting here, said in press conference Sunday that calling a new round of global trade talks as 'New Development Agenda' was proposed by Tanzania and unanimously agreed to by the participants.
The recommendation will be relayed to the Doha meeting that is scheduled to take place on Nov. 9-13. But since the talks held here were informal and involved only some WTO member countries, nothing discussed here will be binding on the Doha conference.
The WTO has 145 member nations in all, and those represented at the meeting here made up less than 20 percent of the organisation's total membership.
Still, Yeo said, "We had a good meeting and the ministers were concerned of developing country issues .. there's consensus feeling we should do more for them. It's important rules and facilities are there to let them benefit."
This was why, he said, they agreed to use the term 'New Development Agenda' instead of a 'New Trade Round'. But he warned that if it is merely a change in the wrapping, it would end up being a joke. Said Yeo: "There has to be a change in substance."
On Saturday, Singaporean Premier Goh Chock Tong had noted that the term 'New Round' has acquired a negative connotation. He then suggested that the trade ministers should consider a term like "compact" to describe agreements between developed and developing nations.
More than anything else, the meeting here seemed to be a show of optimism for world trade for many of the participants, most of whom said that it is essential to launch a new round of trade talks to get economies around the globe out of the doldrums.
"The economic situation worldwide gives peer pressure to move on with the talks," said European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy. "We need a collective reaction."
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick also said that his country believes "a new trade talks will help us to come out of the global recession."
Host Singapore also happens to be one of the strongest voices for launching a new trade round.
Warned Goh in his speech Saturday: "A postponement of the (Doha) conference will show weakness and doubt on the benefits of globalisation and free trade. A postponement of the conference will merely embolden the anti-globalists and protectionists."
Many delegation heads here indicated the WTO is committed to pushing through with the Doha meeting, although a few did not discount the possibility that it could be moved to another location because of security concerns. Yeo even admitted that Singapore has been sounded out as a possible alternative venue.
"We have done some preliminary checks," he said. "We could probably do something on a much scaled down basis."
Meanwhile, Yeo reported that the trade ministers who met here had substantive discussions despite the informal nature of the talks.
The basis of the discussions here was the draft text prepared for the Doha meeting by WTO General Council chair Stuart Harbinson. Yeo said the ministers had comprehensive talks on five key issues in the Doha draft, and had agreed that agriculture should be the centerpiece piece of the new development agenda.
Yeo pointed out that farm subsidies given by developed countries were bigger than the combined GDPs of sub-Saharan African countries, and also these subsidies are depriving developing countries of exporting their farm produce to the developed countries.
The other key issues discussed here were the environmental aspects of trade, implementation issues and the two so-called "Singapore issues" -- competition and environment.
Zoellick said that the United States would like farm subsidies to be eliminated. But he added that WTO rules do allow farm subsidies as long as it is not trade distorting.
He said the United States would be working with the European Union to address their concerns about environmental issues and agriculture trade.
Lamy, for his part, said that environmental issues are very important for the Europeans and they have been pushing this at the WTO from the beginning.
"WTO has to be responsive to environmental concerns" he said, adding, "we have given an undertaking that we will not be pushing this towards some sort of trade protection."
When questioned about any talks on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Yeo, Zoellick and Lamy all said the Singapore meeting has agreed not to question the intellectual property rights regime.
They said, however, that there was also an agreement to be flexible in the application of it to health issues, particularly when essential drugs are needed at an affordable price to address a public health emergency in developing countries.
Not all participants in the talks came away pleased. Indian Trade Minister Murasoli Maran, for instance, said that he was not fully satisfied with the outcome of the Singapore meeting.
"Substantial improvements needs to be made to the draft text. Mere beautiful words will not suffice," he said at a post-conference press briefing.
Maran also said that India has strong reservations on the 'Singapore issues'.
He argued that if a new round of WTO trade talks are going to be on development,then questions of implementing earlier undertakings given by developed countries and eradicating poverty in developing countries must take top billing.
"If we want to call it a development agenda, then let's take all development issues into consideration," said Maran. "Investments and competition policy are not development issues."
India in fact attended the meeting to express its opposition to starting a new round without first addressing the pressing needs of the developing countries. But another strong WTO critic, Malaysia, pointedly snubbed the Singapore gathering.
Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz was even here Friday, but left the same day after delivering a lecture to the Singapore Chamber of Commerce.
But before leaving for Kuala Lumpur, she told the media here that EU and Japan's insistence on including "contentious issues" such as competition policy, investment rules, government procurement and environment, does not augur well for a "meeting of minds" in Doha.
"Times are so bad, industries are shaky," said Aziz. "No one wants to talk about market opening at this time. People are more worried about extra protectionism."IPS:
