WTO: stonewalling on implementation issues

By C. Rammanohar Reddy

GENEVA, AUG 1. The ``Like Minded Group'' at the World Trade Organisation, an alliance that includes India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Zimbabwe, on Tuesday said it was unfair and a breach of faith to expect the developing countries to endorse a new round of trade negotiations before there was demonstrable progress in dealing with proposals to correct the deficiencies in the existing trade agreements.

The ``implementation issues'', as 97 specific proposals are called, have been on the table since mid-1999 and range over a number of WTO agreements such as TRIPS, textiles, agriculture, subsidies and anti-dumping duties. Until this week a decision had been reached on only five relatively minor issues. And as if in confirmation of the developing countries' accusations that their demands were being stonewalled, as few as four more proposals were identified on Tuesday evening for a possible early decision. The important proposals on more market access in agriculture, accelerating removal of quotas in textiles and lengthening transition periods in TRIPS have been sidelined.

At a press meet, delegates from the group asserted it was wrong on the part of the trade majors like the European Union and the U.S. to block progress on the implementation issues by now demanding that the proposals be negotiated as part of the next round of trade talks. ``It was decided last year that settlement of these issues would be part of a confidence-building process and the proposals all resolved before the fourth ministerial conference, so they cannot be made part of a new round. And if they are not dealt with beforehand they raise questions about the credibility of the system,'' added a Malaysian delegate.

Indian officials said that while no rich country had said these were unimportant issues, they were yet unwilling to make specific commitments on most of them. An official from Jamaica, another member of the group, argued that as there was considerable disappointment with the results of the Uruguay Round agreements, a down payment on implementation would have ``symbolic and substantive value'' in restoring the confidence of the developing countries in the WTO and persuading them that they could benefit from a new WTO round.

The developed countries, however, insist that the lack of progress is not for want of trying. Mr. Peter Allgeier, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, said at another press conference that the new U.S. Ambassador to the WTO had spent ``more time on implementation than on any other trade issue''. But the time spent has not resulted in concrete results. A few more implementation issues have been referred once again to WTO committees, which makes it highly unlikely that there will be any major package of agreements announced before the Doha ministerial meeting.

When the implementation issues were first identified and proposed nearly three years ago, few governments and WTO trade officials saw much merit in them. ``We have forced them to acknowledge the seriousness and legitimacy of our demands,'' said one developing country official.

``But the stonewalling that is now going on is not helping to build confidence in the WTO, it only confirms the criticism that the institution is riddled with iniquity.'' Whispers have begun to be heard in the corridors that by constantly harping on their implementation problems, countries with an insignificant share in world trade are becoming obstacles in the launch of a new round.

This may not be a correct interpretation since the bigger roadblocks are the differences between the Cairns group of agricultural exporters and the E.U. over the agenda for farm trade and between the U.S. and the rest of the world over anti- dumping duties.

But that has not prevented suspicions that in the end the implementation issues could become the sacrificial lamb in the drive to reach a consensus on a wide-ranging agenda for a new WTO round.

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