The Hindu : National : A positive signal for Doha round

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 20, 2004

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National

A positive signal for Doha round

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 19. The UNCTAD XI Conference, which concluded on Friday with the adoption of a Ministerial Declaration called the `Sao Paulo Consensus,' has given a positive signal for the progress of the current Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations.

The Declaration reflects the concerns of developing countries such as India that the global trading system and trade negotiations must ensure development gains and thus gives a positive impetus to current World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations. The Declaration says that all countries have a shared interest in the success of the Doha work programme, which aims at increasing trade opportunities and reducing trade barriers as well as at making the trading system more development-friendly.

This, it is noted, would contribute to the objective of upholding and safeguarding an open, equitable, rule-based and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system.

"A major contribution of the Doha Ministerial Declaration was to place the needs and interests of developing countries at the heart of the Doha work programme.

This important objective needs to be pursued with a view to bringing about concrete development oriented outcomes from the multilateral trade negotiations," it says. According to an official release, the Conference has specifically drawn attention to the shrinking policy space available to developing countries to pursue development objectives in the light of the increasing commitments that they are being asked to assume as a result of multilateral and other trade negotiations.

Accordingly, it has called upon all countries to consider that an appropriate balance be maintained between such policy space and international commitments. Describing agriculture as the central element in the WTO negotiations, the Declaration underlined that efforts should be made to achieve internationally agreed aims in the three pillars, including substantial improvement in market access, reduction of subsidies with a view to phasing out all forms of export subsidies and substantial reduction in trade-distorting domestic support.

The conference, attended by an official delegation led by the Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, also emphasised special and differential treatment of developing countries, which should be an integral part of all elements of the negotiations on agriculture taking place in the WTO.

The Declaration emphasised that efforts at extending market access liberalisation for non-agricultural products should also be intensified with the aim of reducing or eliminating tariffs, including tariff peaks, high tariffs and tariff escalations as well as non-tariff barriers especially on products of export interest to developing nations.

The Conference highlighted the role the services played in a country's development, especially in regard to developing nations with Mode 4, which is about movement of professionals from one country to another for jobs on a temporary basis.

UNCTAD XI also witnessed the launch of the third round of negotiations of the Global System of Trade Preferences among developing nations which was formally adopted in the Sao Paulo consensus.

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