Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 4 • 4th February 2009
Trade Ministers Pledge to Push for Doha Closure This Year
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Trade ministers from 24 countries have pledged to resist protectionism and strive to conclude the seven-year-old Doha Round of trade talks before the end of the year, according to a statement that emerged from an informal high-level gathering on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos over the weekend.
But such progress may not be easy to achieve given recent and upcoming changes in administration in several countries, as well as the particular challenges to further trade liberalisation posed by the ongoing economic crisis.
Despite such obstacles, the ministers agreed “to continue to attach the highest priority to achieving a successful conclusion of the WTO’s Doha Development Agenda with an ambitious and balanced outcome.”
“We recognise the major progress made in 2008 towards finalising modalities in the Doha Development Round, which provides a sound basis for an early resolution of the remaining differences in 2009,” the ministers wrote.
They also agreed “to refrain from raising new barriers to trade in goods and services, imposing new export restrictions, or implementing WTO inconsistent measures to stimulate exports.”
Swiss minister Doris Leuthard, the host of the gathering, laid out a tentative timetable for how the negotiations might proceed this year, stressing that “more meetings of ministers” would be needed.
“Possibly, a first meeting could even take place before the G20 meeting in April,” she said. “There could be another meeting on the margin of the OECD ministerial at the end of June, before Pascal probably will invite us to Geneva for July,” she said, referring to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. The WTO is headquartered in Geneva.
Also on the sidelines of the annual Davos gathering, DG Lamy held a one-on-one meeting with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. The two agreed on the importance of keeping trade lines open during times of economic hardship; both pledged to work toward a successful Doha conclusion.
But actual progress in the trade negotiations will likely not come easily. The ministers will need to overcome a sense of political inertia still lingering from last year. Hard pushes to strike modalities deals, the first step towards a full trade agreement, have fallen short twice in the past seven months.
“We have a problem of credibility, because we repeat discussing the same issues without being able to conclude the Doha Round,” Leuthard admitted in her personal conclusions from the meeting.
Moreover, the economic crisis may tempt countries to impose new barriers to trade in an effort to shield domestic industry.
At the WTO on Tuesday, Lamy reiterated his desire to see the negotiations towards tariff- and subsidy-cutting deals continue in 2009. He insisted that the political will exists to bring the round to a successful end.
“Let me remind you that, at our December meetings, we heard many members call for a speedy conclusion of the Doha Round,” Lamy told delegates at a WTO General Council meeting.
“Since then, we have continued to hear similar calls coming from all regions, and political and business leaders alike.”
“Our biggest challenge today… is to ensure trade is part of the solution as opposed to aggravating an already serious crisis which risks making the recession longer and deeper,” Lamy said.
“To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, who said ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’, today we could say that ‘if it is a job for a job, then we will have massive unemployment’.”
ICTSD reporting. “Ministers promise 2009 trade deal,” BBC NEWS, 31 January 2009.
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