GENEVA - The Doha Round of multilateral trade talks was brought crashing down
late on Tuesday by the same discrepancies between rich and poor countries that
have marked the nearly seven years of negotiations from the outset.
An insurmountable rift between the United States on one hand and China and
India on the other ended the emergency conference of ministers called by the
World Trade Organization (WTO), which had stretched into its ninth day of
sessions.
Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana interpreted the collapse of the talks
as the failure of an attempt by industrialised countries to give very little
and ask for a lot, which was simply not
accepted, in general terms, by the developing countries, he told Inter Press
Service (IPS).
What ultimately sparked what is seen by many participants as an international
disaster was an issue that is dear to developing countries: the establishment
of a mechanism of special safeguards that would allow developing countries to
raise tariffs on farm imports when they reach a certain level and begin to
threaten the livelihoods of poor farmers
"It is unbelievable that we have failed over one issue," said Brazilian Foreign
Minister Celso Amorim. "Not that the issue is not important for some countries,
but many other much more intractable issues were overcome."
WTO director general Pascal Lamy said agreements had been reached on 18 issues
out of a list of 20, but that the gap could not be closed on number 19.
The United States opposed the safeguard clauses, arguing that they could give
rise to abuses, while China and India demanded the mechanism as a way of
defending livelihoods, food security and rural development for farmers in
developing countries.
The difference kept the ministers from the roughly 30 countries who met last
week and the representatives of the rest of the WTO's 153 member states from
reaching an agreement on the parameters for talks on agriculture and
non-agricultural market access.
Conceived in the Qatari capital in November 2001 with the aim of sending a
message of solidarity to a world shaken by the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New
York and Washington, the Doha Round of talks is failing against a backdrop of
threats of new crises involving food and oil prices and climate change.
"In the face of a global food price crisis, we simply could not agree to a
result that would raise more barriers to world food trade," said US Trade
Representative Susan Schwab.
Carin Smaller, of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), said
"the US argued that opening markets was the best way" to achieve food security
and to promote livelihoods. "India and China, in contrast, with the support of
the majority of developing country members, argued for a strong safeguard
mechanism to protect food security and livelihoods in the event of major
disruptions to agriculture markets."
Mexico's Deputy Finance Minister Beatriz Leycegui said the failure of the Doha
Round is a loss to the whole world because it comes at a time of severe
economic crisis, in the midst of protectionism and loss of credibility for the
multilateral system. Under these conditions, reaching an agreement was urgent,
she said.
Lamy accepted that the Doha meeting had collapsed. "We will have to let the
dust settle a bit," he said about future WTO negotiations. However, he insisted
that he had not "thrown in the towel".
Alfredo Chiaradํa, secretary of international trade relations at the
Argentine Foreign Ministry, said that in the last meeting of ministers on
Tuesday, some expressed an interest in attempting to revive the talks.
Leycegui said Mexico had insisted on not "tossing in the garbage everything
that has been achieved" in the nine days of negotiations. "It is frustrating
because we thought an agreement was near, but political commitment was
lacking."
Anne-Laure Constantin, another IATP expert, told IPS she hoped that the WTO
member countries "will be creative enough to think about another way to address
trade at the multilateral level, which is more adapted to the new conditions
and really helps countries deal with the crises they have to face in food,
energy and climate.''
The Doha talks were supposed to be a development round, to favor the poorest
countries, which makes their failure especially frustrating, said Taiana.
Jeremy Hobbs, director of Oxfam International, said, "This is a major
disappointment. At a time when food and fuel prices are high and the global
economic outlook is uncertain, the world's poorest people are increasingly
vulnerable. A decent trade deal could have given them a chance to prevent
worsening poverty."
Aftab Alam Khan of ActionAid, said, "The responsibility for the failure lies
squarely with the US and EU, who could not think beyond the interests of their
huge transnational businesses that want to grab more and more market
opportunities in poor countries. For the US and the EU to blame China and India
for the collapse is just laughable."
In Amorim's view, "any outside observer would not believe that after the
progress made we were not able to conclude the talks."
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