The Nation (Thailand) | September 23, 2003
International trade sources believe non-governmental organisations were responsible for last week's walkout by African, Caribbean and Pacific countries at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun, which led to a collapse of the global trade talks.
The NGOs played an important role in persuading them to block the progress of talks in order to protect their interests, said an international trade expert who attended the WTO ministerial conference.
But they did not tell the developing countries the real benefits to be gained from farm trade reforms.
The trade expert said the economies of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries would suffer from the delay of agricultural liberalisation negotiations.
Most developing countries are net exporting countries of farm products, which find their export markets in the developed countries.
The trade expert said they blocked the negotiations because they were upset by the draft agreement on cotton, which contained United States responses that denied compensation.
They refused to get involved in the Singapore Issue talks, including investment, competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation.
This eventually led to a breakdown of talks, without the 146-member WTO nations achieving progress on any single issue.
The failure of trade talks dealt a devastating blow to the world's multilateral trading system. For the past eight rounds of world trade negotiations, developed countries dominated all meetings in which trade proposals were raised.
They went to Cancun with positive vibes after developed and developing countries reached agreement on two main issues. Firstly, poor nations were allowed to access cheap drugs for Aids and malaria. The US and the European Union also compromised on the reduction of domestic and export subsidies, as well as trade obstacles.
In this latest round of talks, developing and least developed countries found a common voice, but this led to other problems.
Questions have also been raised about the actions of Luis Ernesto Derbez, the chairman of the conference and Mexico's foreign minister.
Why didn't he start the afternoon session with a draft farm text instead of Singapore Issue? All members knew the Singapore Issue was a controversial topic among rich and poor countries.
'If he started with farm issues, the matter could have been resolved and the Singapore Issue could have been left for the next round,' the international trade expert said.
The failure of the talks shows that members have forgotten the central point of the meeting on agricultural trade liberalisation. The issue was almost resolved, but then the US and the EU arrived in Cancun with a new mandate to reach a compromise by reducing domestic, export and trade barriers.
Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, the director-general of the WTO, was disappointed by the deadlock.
But he insisted that the WTO would try to reconstruct the process. Representatives from the 146 member economies would restart the complicated negotiations in Geneva to make sure the Doha Development Agenda is not derailed.
But there were still niggling questions.
Why did the EU take a last-minute compromised stance on waiving investments and competition policy negotiation under the Singapore Issue? It could have tabled this well before the summit.
Apiradi Tantraporn, director-general of Thailand's Trade Negotiations Department, said some countries prefer to hold their last card until the very end. This is why WTO meetings always miss their deadlines.
She said the WTO would face more difficult negotiations when the number of member countries increases.
'In the future, the WTO will have only superpower trade negotiating countries. Developing countries will join groups, such as the ACP and G-21, to bargain for fair trade practices from those in developed nations,' she said.
The talks failed because members underestimated two points - the cotton controversy between the United States and ACP, and the collaboration of small countries.
Apiradi said there was a lot of political intervention at this round of talks, because this was an election year for many members. They did everything they could to gain the most, and look good ahead of upcoming elections.
'They came to Cancun to exchange benefits,' she said.
The WTO still has more than a year to conclude negotiations. Member nations hope to have a better negotiating environment in Geneva.
But Thailand would not shift its concentration from multilateral to bilateral talks, she said.
'We agreed under WTO trade rules that we can open trade worldwide.
'But we cannot hold negotiations with every country to facilitate trade. Bilateral trade talks cannot undermine WTO construction,' Apiradi said.
The WTO officially announced the failure of the talks, but member countries still did not go home empty handed. They nearly reached an agriculture liberalisation framework, in which a 'blended' draft agreement was sketched out.
Farm trade reform is the most important issue if developing countries are to pull their citizens out of poverty.
Because of this, bickering countries should listen to each other during the Geneva talks.The Nation (Thailand):
