The New Nation - Internet Edition

GLOBAL trade talks aimed at liberalising markets and stimulating growth in developing countries are in an 'extremely dangerous' phase as mentioned by Brazil's representative to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) the other day. According to recent press reports from Geneva, the Western countries, he said, are putting 'too much pressure' on the developing countries in a bid to secure a deal. Western countries themselves 'should show they are willing to make movements' with serious concessions on agricultural subsidies; he was quoted to have remarked. The developing countries, on the other hand, have shown their willingness to compromise by accepting tariff cuts across thousands of products. This is the 'most important contribution' in the history of multilateral negotiations; it was specifically pointed out along with the debacle like the WTO's ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico in 2003, which ended in acrimony amid a North-South standoff on agriculture.

The WTO Doha Round, which was launched in 2001, should have ended in 2004 with an agreement to cut barriers to trade in farm produce, industrial goods and services. However, it has been dogged by long-standing disputes between wealthy and developing nations, especially on protective barriers for agriculture, as well as between the European Union and the United States on the same issue. The European Union remains the world's largest provider of agricultural subsidies, doling out 138 billion dollars in 2006, according to statistics released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The heads of WTO's two main negotiating groups on agriculture and industrial products issued fresh proposals in July for breaking the impasse, including a cut in industrial tariffs charged by 27 developing nations to less than 23 per cent. The United States said last month it was prepared to negotiate on the basis of proposal to cut its subsidies up to $16.2 billion.

The WTO, on the other hand, is expected to break its own rules by not holding a ministerial conference in 2007, given the low chances of securing a global trade deal by the year end as reported by AFP news agency recently quoting trade sources in Geneva. The global trade body's rules state that a conference of ministers from the 151 members should be held once every two years, and the last such meeting took place in Hong Kong in December 2005. But the chairman of the WTO general council told delegates that such a meeting was 'unlikely to happen' given the continuing impasse in multilateral trade liberalisation talks. According to him, all members are of the view that as a practical consequence it will not be possible to hold the conference before the end of 2007. It was stressed that many trading nations were concerned about the likely breach of the WTO rules. In the backdrop of all these, WTO director general Pascal Lamy believes that a deal is 'as doable as it is essential'.