Agence France Press | By Kate Millar | June 30, 2003
UN chief Kofi Annan on Monday called for countries to show greater flexibility in order to overcome difficulties in global trade talks ahead of a key World Trade Organization meeting in Mexico in September.
The UN Secretary General said the three-year series of trade liberalization talks negotiations launched by WTO ministers in the Qatari capital Doha in 2001 could provide a "powerful engine of growth."
"Yet success is by no means assured. There are only 10 weeks left before the ministerial meeting in Cancun (Mexico). Key deadlines have been missed," Annan told the opening day of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
"The time has come for all parties to show more flexibility and give priority to the global interest.
"It is not too late to avoid a setback for economic development," he added.
Ministers from the 146-member WTO are due to conduct a "midterm" review of the current series of trade talks -- dubbed the Doha Development round -- in the Mexican resort of Cancun from September 10-14.
Negotiations are flagging, with progress held up by deep divisions in such key areas as agriculture subsidies and access for poor countries to generic medicines. Deadlines for interim agreements have been missed in both areas.
One of the principal themes this year at the annual four-week gathering of the UN Economic and Social Council is rural development in poor countries.
Annan pointed out that the Doha agenda aimed to eliminate unfair competition faced by farmers in poor countries because of government production and export subsidies offered to farmers in rich countries.
Both the United States and the European Union are under particular pressure to pare down export subsidies, which are seen as distorting trade and punishing farmers from the developing world when they try to compete on the world market.
While both the United States and the EU committed themselves in Doha to phasing out export subsidies, they continue to differ on the scope and pace of their elimination.
The US administration, backed by the Cairns Group of exporters, is pushing for a radical and rapid scrapping of such subsidies while the European Union has advocated a more gradual approach.
WTO ministers meeting in Doha also agreed that poor countries grappling with health emergencies such as AIDS could order the domestic production of medicines patented by western companies.
That agreement resolved the issue for developing nations such as India or Brazil that have their own pharmaceutical industries. But it left hanging the problem of poorer states that do not have the capacity to produce drugs and who want to be able to import generic medicines based on western patents.
The United States, mindful of the interests of its big drug companies, is blocking a draft settlement on grounds that the proposed wording could be interpreted to include medicines for non-infectious diseases such as obesity and impotence.
Annan said a successful conclusion to the Doha round "could provide a powerful engine of growth, thus facilitating the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals."
Halving the proportion of people living in dire poverty by 2015 was one of eight goals adopted by 150 heads of state and government at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000.
The goals for 2015 also include reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and halving from 20 to 10 percent the proportion of the world's population without access to safe drinking water.Agence France Press:
