Issues Outlined at the Recent WTO Negotiations | Economics

In this article we will discuss about the issues outlined at the recent WTO negotiations.

Seattle Meet:

The Third Trade Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), attended by 135 countries was held at Seattle, USA between November 30 and December 3, 1999. The developed countries, led by the USA made a determined bid to get the new round of trade negotiations initiated with a wider agenda.

The issues proposed for the new round of trade negotiations included E-commerce, industrial tariffs, investment rules, labour standards, human rights, environment, competition policy and government procurement policies. The Seattle Meet broke down in view of serious differences between the developed and less developed countries not only upon the various issues raised by the former but also upon the necessity of a new round of trade negotiations.

In view of the failure of Seattle Meet in 1999 to adopt any decision and in the context of concerted efforts of some developed countries to seek endorsement of the expanded agenda for the WTO, the Fourth Ministerial Conference was held at Doha, the capital of Qatar between 9 -14 November 2001. It was attended by trade ministers of 144 countries. India played a proactive role at the Conference. It emphasised upon the genuine resolution of implementation related concerns, increased market access in agriculture, sufficient flexibility and clarity under TRIPS for public health policies.

It was strongly opposed to the introduction of non-trade issues like labour standards in the agenda. The adamant posturing by the European Union (EU) and the USA had almost pushed the conference to the brink of fiasco like Seattle. The Conference could, however, be retrieved after some yielding by them on some key areas of concern to the developing countries.

After almost blocking the agreement on the four contentious Singapore Issues, India and other developing countries agreed for a consensus on the declaration following a clarification by the Conference chairman that negotiations on those issues would be held only after an ‘explicit consensus’ was reached at the fifth ministerial conference to be held in 2003.

WTO Meet at Cancun:

The Fifth Ministerial Conference, attended by 146 member countries of the WTO, was held at Cancun in Mexico from September 10 to 15, 2003. Although Doha declaration had recognised the necessity of in-depth negotiations on several issues, yet the three main issues included in the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) that came up for discussion at the Cancun Meet were- (i) Agriculture, (ii) Singapore issues and (iii) The West African cotton issue.

In view of serious differences on various issues between the developed and the developing countries, Cancun Meet of the WTO broke down. Subsequently, the EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy observed. “The clear lesson of Cancun is that no single player or group of players can deliver the goods in the Round. While we can and are ready to make further adjustments in the EU position, what we need is a round in which all contribute and make adjustments.”

Doha Round:

Under the Doha Round of trade negotiations a meeting of ministers was held at Hong Kong in December 2005 and a deadline of the end of 2006 was set to conclude negotiations of all areas of the Doha Round of negotiations on matters related to agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and services. In view of the wide differences remaining among the member countries, it was decided to suspend the Doha Round of negotiations to be resumed later in a more favourable environment.

India’s stand on various issues is summed up below:

(i) Agriculture:

India and a group of 33 countries (G-33) took the position that the overall tariff reductions on bound rates for developing countries should not be more than 36 percent. It was specified by G-33 and India that an appropriate number of special products (SP) may be designated by members themselves on the basis of criteria of food security, livelihood security and rural development needs. There should be 20 percent tariff lines in case of special products.

40 percent of such products must be exempted from any tariff cut. There should be effective Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) to protect against global price decline and import surges. There should be no a priori exclusion of any product, particularly special products from the ambit of SSM. The trade-distorting domestic support (subsidies) should be cut by 70-75 percent by the United States and by 75-80 percent by the European Union.

(ii) Non-Agricultural Market Access:

There may be less than full reciprocity among the developed and developing countries in respect of market access of non-agricultural products. There should be sufficient flexibility to address the sensitivities of developing countries.

(iii) Services:

There should be commitments by the developed countries on substantial openings for India’s contractual service suppliers and independent professionals.

(iv) Rules:

India and G-33 called for strengthening of anti-dumping rules. While enlarging the scope of the agreement on subsidies and counter veiling measures, there should be flexibilities for the developing countries.

The Doha Round of negotiations were resumed in February 2007. A mini-ministerial meeting was held in July 2008. Several issues relating to agriculture and NAMA remained unresolved. The multilateral discussion on agriculture resumed in October 2008. Large gaps still remained to be bridged in several areas such as sensitive products (SEP’s), tariff quota creation, non-SEP’s with tariffs higher than 100 percent, tropical and diversification products, preference erosion and the SSM, proposal for reduction in subsidies for cotton and tariff simplification.

At the Bali Meet of W.T.O negotiations held in December, 2013, it was decided to work out the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) among the member countries. It was expected that signing up of TFA would bring a big gain amounting to $ 1 trillion for the world economy. India and some other developing countries insisted that food security issue for the poor should be addressed prior to such an agreement. The EU and the US assured that no sanctions or legal actions on account of stocking of food grain at the prices lower than market prices would be imposed till 2017.

At the Geneva meet of WTO negotiations in July 2014, India and some other developing countries, disappointed by lack of progress on food security issue, demanded that talks on TFA should be halted till a permanent solution on public stockholding for food security is found. It brought about a serious deadlock in trade negotiations.

The WTO’s General Council met in Geneva in November 2014. It accepted India’s demand that TFA would not come into effect till a permanent solution to the food stockpiling issue is found. It means those countries would continue to pursue the food security programme without attracting any WTO action for the breach of subsidy cap even beyond 2017.

Only a greater degree of flexibility and sense of accommodation on the part of both developed and developing countries can result in preventing the complete collapse of Doha Round of WTO negotiations.