Financial Review | By Mark Davis | May 30, 2003
The World Trade Organisation will miss its fourth significant deadline in the ambitious Doha round of global trade negotiations after officials in Geneva failed to agree on how to cut industrial tariffs.
WTO director-general Supachai Panitchpakdi said he was disappointed governments would fail to meet a May 31 deadline for reaching a framework agreement on reducing barriers to trade in manufactured goods.
But he said good progress was being made in the talks on industrial tariffs and a framework agreement was still "within reach" provided governments built on the work done.
The WTO's committee negotiating on industrial tariffs failed earlier this week to agree on a draft framework drawn up by Switzerland's WTO ambassador, Pierre-Louis Girard .
The central element of Mr Girard's proposal is a complex formula for cutting tariffs on the $US5.7 trillion ($9 trillion) in manufactured goods traded around the world.
Under this formula, there would be greater cuts to high tariffs than there would be to lower tariffs, although countries with relatively high average tariff levels would be somewhat shielded from the full brunt of the cuts.
The Girard formula does not go as far as the United States and the European Union want in cutting industrial tariffs and leaves the final size of the cuts to be negotiated later in the Doha round.
But Mr Girard also identified seven industry sectors of export interest to developing countries where he wants WTO members to agree that rich countries would eliminate their tariffs altogether.
These sectors include three where Australia imposes relatively high tariffs textiles, clothing and footwear, and automotive parts and components as well as areas where Australia's tariffs are relatively low, such as electronics and electrical goods, fish and fish products, stones, gems and precious metals, and leather goods.
The May 31 target for finalising a framework agreement on industrial tariffs is the fourth deadline the WTO's 146 member countries have missed in the Doha round of negotiations for a new multilateral trade agreement.
Earlier deadlines missed include a deal on cutting barriers to trade in agricultural goods and a deadline for agreeing on changes to trade rules to allow poor countries to import cheap generic copies of patented medicines for treating diseases like HIV/AIDS.
The failure to meet these interim deadlines has fuelled pessimism about the WTO's chances of finalising the Doha round, which is supposed to reach a comprehensive new global trade deal this year.
In addition, the Doha round is aiming to slash farm subsidies, which amount to more than $US119 billion a year, to free up trade in services and to rewrite trade rules on anti-dumping, trade-related intellectual property rights, dispute settlement and special treatment for developing countries.Financial Review:
