Sparring over a new round

THE ELUSIVE CONSENSUS over the contents of Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) scheduled later this year at Doha, Qatar, points to a big fight in the making. The postures adopted by the member-states at Geneva recently, marked by continued differences of opinion on the content for Doha, do not provide much comfort. The insistence by the major economic players, especially the U.S. and the E.U., on taking the WTO along paths charted out with their respective interests in mind will only push the fledging organisation away from its objective of facilitating free and fair flow of trade. It is increasingly becoming evident that the WTO is being steered from the path of inclusiveness, towards an exclusive highway for select economies that influence the course of world trade. In putting together an agenda for Doha, it is imperative that the developing economies are assured beyond doubt that their interests will not be compromised and that the promises made at the Uruguay Round will be honoured. That there have been neither substantive nor even symbolic moves towards gaining the confidence of the developing countries is reflective of the continued apathy towards addressing the concerns of these economies. The tardy progress in resolving the implementation issues, for instance, is bound to come as a serious hurdle.

The future of the Organisation will not be done any good by the continued insistence by some economies on pushing forward their case even while issues raised by the poorer countries continue to remain unresolved. It is against this backdrop that calls for widening the agenda for Doha and for a new and enlarged round of negotiations are bound to be resisted. While there has been a visible shift in the approach of the U.S. towards the E.U. - by way of the willingness by the former to consider limited negotiations on foreign investment and competition policies - such a flexibility has not been visible when it comes to addressing the issues raised by the developing economies. Given the post-Uruguay Round experience of these countries, it is necessary that the imbalances of the 1994 Uruguay Round agreements are corrected. For this to happen, it is imperative that developing countries evolve coordinated positions ahead of the November Ministerial Conference.

That the WTO continues to be haunted by the Seattle collapse is apparent from linking the launch of a fresh and enlarged round of negotiations at Doha to the success of the Ministerial Conference. The time from now to November, when the Doha Ministerial Conference is scheduled to take place, should be utilised to draw up an inclusive agenda that comprises a broad menu that does not run counter to the concept of the WTO. Commitments have to be made to assure developing economies that their concerns will not be compromised. As of now, no such indications are available. The future of the WTO will be well- served if success at Doha is measured by the progress made on the ability of the Organisation to win the confidence of its member- states that it will put in place a non- discriminatory mechanism that facilitates world trade. In its efforts to institutionalise the multilateral trading system and to infuse an amount of certainty in the way nations conduct their external trade, the WTO could serve as the largest collective bargaining forum. Or, it could become yet another organisation where the big dominate over the small. Any attempt to push an agenda for Doha that leaves some nations poorer will only result in a pyrrhic victory.

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