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SHAHABUDDIN
NAGARI The Doha Declaration urged the WTO member donors to significantly increase their contributions. The subject listed in the Doha Declaration and the paragraphs that refer to them were issues and concerns related to implementation. Agriculture, services, and market access for non-agricultural products. Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), relationship between trade and investment. Interaction between trade and competition policy, transparency in government procurement, trade facilitation, antidumping, subsidies, WTO rules, regional trade agreements, dispute settlement, trade and environment, electronic commerce, small economies, trade, debt and finance, trade and transfer of technology, technical cooperation and capacity building, and special and differential treatment for least developed countries (LDCs). Most of these involve negotiations; other work includes actions under 'implementation', analysis and monitoring. Around 100 implementation issues were raised in the Ministerial Conference. The implementation decision, combined with para 12 of the main Doha Declaration, provided a two-track solution as stated earlier. More than 40 items under 12 headings were settled at or before the Doha Conference, for immediate delivery; and the vast majority of the remaining items are ithe subjects of negotiations. Progress is to be reviewed at the fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico. They have to always see the interest of 49 least developed countries in all the aspects and work. According to a study of the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), trade-distorting measures of the wealthy nations displace more than US$ 40 billion of net agricultural exports per year from developed countries, and elimination of these measures would triple the developing countries' net agricultural trade. The study also reveals that protectionism and subsidies by the world's developed nations cost Latin America and the Caribbean about US$ 8.3 billion in annual income from agriculture, while Asia loses some US$ 6.6 billion and Sub-Saharan Africa close to US$ 2 billion. So a question may arise: why the WTO agreements and why is it needed for the least-developed countries? Why an expensive conference is going to be held in Cancun and what type of egg is going to be laid by this policy making trade organization WTO? If we go through the paragraphs of the Doha Declaration we will see that in every sentence there is something new and sympathy for the least-developed countries, but what is going to be in the decision-taking papers? The upcoming WTO ministerial meeting provides an opportunity for world governments to agree on a plan to make agricultural trade more fair. For the sake of low-Income farmers and consumers across the globe, negotiators from the industrialised countries should move beyond rhetoric and gestures. It is time to remove the trade-distorting measures that hurt poor people in developing and least-developed countries. The World Bank cannot play a double-role between developed and developing countries. They always prescribe the developing countries and LDCs to minimize and to cut subsidies in agricultural sectors, but they keep silent in the same matter for the developed countries, which create a trade distortion, competing against subsidised products that are dumped in local markets of developing countries and LDCs. One more kilogram sugar of EU means one less kilogram production in Kenya or Guatemala, a bale of subsidised US cotton means less production in Mali or tons of subsidised rice in Japan have displacement effect on Vietnam or Thailand. These opinions must be put before the WTO ministerial conference by the LDCs in a body. If EU can protect themselves and go for dispute settlement then why not the LDCs move to the WTO for trade distortion and other matters related to their existence? What will be the role of Bangladesh in the forthcoming ministerial conference of WTO in Cancun? In a roundtable conference of the Institute for Research and Development (IRD) Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and other political leaders, economists, journalists and NGO representatives expressed their views clearly. The Minister has flayed the world's powerful trading partners for their attempts to impose so-called Singapore issues on the poorer nations ignoring the critical demand of facilitating market access for products of the LDCs. Global trading giants are pushing for implementing the Singapore issues - investment, competition, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation which the minister said would put extra burden on the poorer nations. He also said that Bangladesh is trying its best to maintain solidarity and unity of the poorer nations at the upcoming meeting as Dhaka heads the LDC Consultative Group. Without any hesitation the minister added that the knowledge of the WTO issues and agreements were negligible when the current round of global trade talks was launched in 2001 in Doha, but in the last two years his office achieved substantial progress in the areas. In this roundtable discussion speakers passed their opinion on the joint efforts of the LDCs in Cancun talks to press home their demands in light of the Dhaka Declaration. They also underscored the need for spurring the growth of industrialisation in Bangladesh to ensure economic development so that the country can play a vital role in global economy and major multilateral fora. According to the Commerce Ministry sources, at the Cancun talks duty-free market access and temporary movement of natural persons, which were included in the Dhaka Declaration adopted in June 2003 by LDCs trade ministers, will be two top agenda from Bangladesh viewpoint and also the need for capacity building and technical assistance to face challenges of globalisation. But a World Bank report entitled 'Global Economic Prospects 2004' released recently stated that inequities in the world trading system dragged down export growth in developing countries. On the other hand, the movement of natural persons which is one of the top agenda of 'Dhaka Declaration', is apprehended not to solve in the Cancun Conference. They added that poor African countries are not worried about natural persons movement. They want to be more serious on agriculture and TRIPS issue. The subjects
listed in Doha Declaration 2001 must be thoroughly reviewed by the
LDCs under a single banner in the forthcoming Ministerial Conference
in Cancun. A group of 49 LDCs is not a small group, but more than
the EU. They have to place their demand within the legal framework
of the WTO relating to agriculture, antidumping, subsidies, TRIPS,
technical cooperation and capacity building, regional trade
agreements, services and other matters which were approved in the
Ministerial Declaration in Doha. In the second paragraph of the 2001
Declaration, the ministers recognised the need for all peoples to
benefit from the increased opportunities and welfare gains that the
multilateral trading system generates. They also admit that - "the
majority of WTO members are developing countries. We seek to place
their needs and interests at the heart of the Work Programme adopted
in this Declaration. Now, we will wait to see the Cancun Declaration
and the role of future WTO. |
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Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) |