Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 8 • Number 17 • 13th May 2004
Development Committee Discusses Declining Commodity Prices
The WTO Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) met on 11 May, with Members focusing on declining commodity prices and Paragraph 51 of the Doha mandate (which requests Members to consider how sustainable development is reflected in the overall negotiations).
Chaired by Ambassador Trevor Clarke (Barbados), the meeting was dominated by discussions on declining commodity prices, picking up from the previous meeting of the CTD in February (see BRIDGES Weekly, 26 February 2004). In a submission, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda made a suggestion on the allocation of work in the WTO on issues related to the decline of the prices of primary commodities (WT/COMTD/W/130, accessible at http://docsonline.wto.org). The submission proposed that the work should be shared between the special (negotiating) session of the Committee on Agriculture and the Negotiating Group on Market Access, with the CTD being responsible for monitoring progress on the issue in the negotiations.
Switzerland, in its submission (WT/COMTD/W/129), considered it essential that negotiations were well informed about the technical, economic and commercial factors that influence commodity decline and volatility, to provide for sound analysis in the negotiations. Switzerland preferred in-depth discussions within the CTD, assisted by input from various international organisations represented at these meetings. The role of the CTD was, according to the Swiss, to further raise awareness on the decline in commodity prices, and to prepare the ground for delegations to introduce concrete proposals in the negotiating sessions, rather than to make concrete recommendations to negotiating bodies.
While the proposal by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania drew widespread support from developing countries as well as the US, some developed countries, such as Japan, were reportedly in favour of the Swiss proposal.
At the meeting, Members also supported a request by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), an inter-governmental financial institution, for observer status.
Developing countries seek to operationalise Para. 51
Discussions on Para. 51 saw rifts emerge between countries such as Kenya and India, which sought a "faithful" implementation of the letter of the Doha mandate, and certain developed countries. One developing country trade delegate emphasised that the Doha mandate requested the CTD to identify and debate the developmental aspects of the negotiations "…in order to help achieve the objective of having sustainable development appropriately reflected". The delegate called for more than academic debates and reports from various committees delivered to the CTD, and said that the CTD should serve as a monitoring mechanism to ensure that the negotiations delivered meaningful sustainable development.
Many developed countries were, however, concerned that any power to make recommendations would imply assigning a negotiating mandate to the CTD regular session, and wanted to keep the discussions on an academic plane. Canada and the US reportedly took a position more in tune with those of developing countries.
At the Chair’s suggestion, informal consultations are due shortly on both declining commodity prices and Para. 51.
Maldives request special treatment for graduating LDCs
In a submission to the CTD session (WT/COMTD/W/128), the Maldives raised a new issue by requesting the CTD to recommend a series of measures that would enable the Maldives and other least developed countries (LDCs) a smooth transition as they graduated from LDC to developing country status. The Maldives drew attention to the additional costs resulting from added WTO obligations following graduation, and the loss of trade preferences it would face. Some Members responded by proposing that any preferential treatment be applied on a case by case basis — in this case to Maldives, which had requested that graduation be treated as a systemic issue. The graduation of the Maldives is still pending within the UN, and further discussions of the issue are set to take place in the CTD.
The next session of the CTD will take place in September 2004.
ICTSD reporting.