News and Analysis • Volume 12 • Number 21 • 11th June 2008
With the Clock Ticking, Countries Push for NAMA Consensus
Negotiators from several developed and developing countries kicked off talks in Geneva on Monday in a concerted push to revive struggling negotiations to reduce barriers to trade in industrial goods.
The talks, which are expected to last one to two weeks, involve a mix of rich and poor countries, including the US - the host of the talks - Canada, Japan, and the EU, as well as Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Malaysia, Pakistan, and South Africa.
The chair of the industrial goods committee at the WTO, Canadian Ambassador Don Stephenson, called off the deadlocked negotiations last week, telling Members that further gatherings would be futile unless delegations showed some willingness to compromise (see BRIDGES Weekly, 4 June 2008, http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/08-06-04/story1.htm).
The renewed push for consensus follows calls from WTO Director General Pascal Lamy for delegates to prepare for a meeting of ministers in Geneva at some point this summer, potentially as early as the end of June. Major differences in the draft texts on industrial goods, as well as agriculture and other areas, will have to be overcome before high-level officials can engage in the sort of cross-sector trade-offs that will be necessary to bring about a successful conclusion to the Doha round of trade talks. The liberalisation of trade in industrial goods, or non-agricultural market access (NAMA), is considered one of the pillars of the round, which is now in its seventh year.
Of all of the ongoing negotiations at the WTO, the NAMA talks have proven most contentious. Whether progress is made in that area will most likely determine whether and when a ministerial meeting could take place.
Sources indicated that participants in this week’s informal industrial goods meeting expect to discuss a wide range of NAMA issues, including tariff reduction formulas, sectoral initiatives, customs union flexibilities, and special concessions for new WTO Members.
One area of contention is the EU and US opposition to a provision in the chair’s draft text that would allow developing countries that are also members of customs unions to exclude trade that occurs within the union when they calculate the value of the trade that they can exempt from negotiated tariff cuts. The provision is widely considered to be in the interest of members of Mercosur, the South American trade bloc that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
The EU and the US maintain that this provision, which Brazil has strongly backed in the meetings this week, would allow the qualifying countries to exempt an inordinately high percentage of their industrial goods trade from agreed tariff reductions.
No schedule has been set for the informal meetings, but sources indicate that delegates will continue to meet until either significant progress is made or they reach a stalemate. While delegates are trying to remain optimistic, sources suggest that, in some cases, countries’ stances in the official negotiations seem to be hardening and becoming more extreme. Given the tone, one delegate expressed scepticism over the potential for any real progress.
India, US, EU to meet
Meanwhile, trade ministers from India, the US, and the EU are to meet in Washington later this week to attempt to hammer out differences on market access for agricultural and industrial goods. The high-level meeting comes on the heels of an accusation by the US that India has been trying to prevent a successful conclusion to the Doha talks.
“It is disappointing that India has been a roadblock to success in the Doha negotiations,” said US Under Secretary of Commerce Christopher Padilla at a forum in Washington last week.
“The time is fast approaching when India’s stance on Doha may result in the failure of the Doha round,” he said.
ICTSD reporting; “US accuses India of trying to wreck WTO talks,” AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, 10 June 2008; “WTO members launch push for industry deal,” REUTERS, 9 June 2008.