In her closing remarks at the December 10-13 meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) topmost decision-making body, Susana Malcorra, Argentine minister and Chair of the Ministerial Conference (MC) said dialogue, and not just negotiation, was part of the world of the WTO members. Ms. Malcorra said she wants the Buenos Aires meeting to be remembered “as the place where this dialogue began.” In an interview, Ms. Malcorra said, there was a need to lift the commitment to the ‘development agenda’ of the WTO’s Doha Round and bring it all the way up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Excerpts:
Just before the meeting, you had said “there is life after Buenos Aires.” Now that the meeting here is deadlocked, do you think the WTO and the development agenda of the Doha Round talks are on life-support?
No, I don’t. I think it is clear that there is a big divide around the question of development and its relationship with trade.
So what we have to do is really give ourselves the opportunity to have a big soul-searching discussion on how to move it forward.
When Doha Round started in 2001, we were in a totally different context. We were at the beginning of the Millennium Development Goals. Now we are in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Many things have happened since 2001. So we need to lift the commitment to Doha and bring it all the way up to the 2030 Agenda, and recognize that as much as trade is ‘a’ pillar of development, it is not ‘the’ pillar of development, and [to] make sure we make those connections.
During the meeting, there was a perception that while the U.S. was seemingly stepping back from its leadership role in taking forward multilateralism, other countries like China, India and South Africa stepped forward. Do you feel this looks like the dawn of an era of new leadership at the WTO level?
Clearly the power is shifting, and the views from different powers are shifting. So that has implications on our negotiations.
That is the reality and we have to deal with reality.
What is your view on India’s stand that negotiations on ‘new issues’ like e-commerce, investment facilitation and proposed norms on small firms should start only after resolving outstanding issues such as food security in the Doha Round?
Well, India and others feel very strongly that we should not have any new issue on the table discussed, and more importantly being negotiated, until we finish the old issues. That is not the position of Argentina.
And now, let me step down from the position of the Chair [of the Buenos Aires meeting].
Argentina is of the view that not allowing ourselves to discuss certain issues that are of high interest to all of us, hinders our ability to deal with them in the future. So my feeling is that this is not an ‘either, or’ situation. We should be able to deal with both of them. This is a decision of WTO members. We need to close this divide.
( This writer is in Buenos Aires at the invitation of India’s Commerce Ministry )
