Asia Times: North and South square off in Doha


	November 10, 2001	atimes.com

Global Economy

North and South square off in Doha
By Gustavo Capdevila

DOHA - The World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference will open the final stage of negotiations aimed at deepening trade liberalization and eliminating inequalities from the multilateral trade regime in a tense climate Friday in Qatar.

The drafts of three declarations to be discussed by the ministers of the 142 WTO member states in Doha have given rise to pronounced discrepancies among countries and between regional groupings.

Representatives of a number of governments as well as non- governmental organizations (NGOs) complain that the documents are biased in favour of industrialized countries.

The documents that the ministers will debate in the Qatari capital for five days starting Friday outline the WTO's position on the future of trade, the implementation of pending aspects of previous agreements, and intellectual property and access to medicine.

Ali Mchumo, ambassador of Tanzania before the WTO and the coordinator of the 49-member bloc of Least Developed Countries, lamented that the documents failed to reflect the demands and viewpoints of developing countries in general.

The three draft documents were under negotiation for nearly a year in Geneva, where the WTO is based. But Martin Khor, the director of the Malaysia-based non-governmental Third World Network, which has branches in Asia, Africa and Latin America, said the process had been "incredibly manipulated". Khor said developing countries have been under tremendous pressure from industrialized countries seeking support for the launch of a comprehensive new round of multilateral trade talks in Doha.

The United States and the European Union are proposing a new round of negotiations as a panacea for overcoming the global recession, which was accentuated by the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. WTO Director-General Mike Moore even stated that failure to launch a new round would inflict serious damage on the global trade organization's credibility.

But Phil Twyford, with the British-based humanitarian NGO Oxfam International, responded that the WTO's crisis of legitimacy was not a product of the anti-globalization protests, but of "the hypocrisy" and double standards of rich countries.

Virtually since its creation, in 1995, the WTO has faced loud criticism and opposition by the anti-globalization movement, whose activists claim the organization is at the service of the interests of industrialized countries. The anti-globalization demonstrations, which have even turned violent in a few cases, played a role in the collapse of the last WTO conference, held in Seattle in late 1999.

But many analysts attribute the Seattle fiasco to the standoff between developing and industrialized nations, and warn that the same impasse will be observed at Doha.

Developing countries are opposed to industrialized countries' aim of starting negotiations on the so-called "new issues" of investment, competition, government procurement transparency and trade facilitation.

Europe would like to see an opening of talks on a broad range of issues in order to draw attention away from its difficulties in tackling the liberalization of agriculture, one of the areas that is lagging the farthest behind in trade liberalization due to the hurdles raised by the developed countries.

At a news briefing on Thursday, Moore acknowledged that agriculture was one of the thorniest questions facing the Doha conference. On that front, protectionist interests in the European Union, Japan, Switzerland, South Korea and the United States are pitted against the agricultural exporters linked in the Cairns Group, which are demanding the same opening of trade in farm products as in the area of industrial goods.

A third faction, comprised of developing countries, complains that the draft ministerial declaration ignores its demand for a mechanism aimed at preserving and improving rural livelihoods in their societies.

The Kenyan delegation criticized WTO General Council Chairman Stuart Harbinson for leaving out any mention in the draft document of the "development box" concept within the agreement on agriculture.

But the stiffest debate expected at the conference will focus on the hurdles that the WTO intellectual property regime puts in the way of access to medicines by poor countries.

The text prepared by Harbinson on that question reflects the differences separating developing countries, led by a bloc of African nations, as well as India and Brazil, from industrialized countries like the United States and Switzerland, where the pharmaceutical giants are headquartered.

But the most glaring trade discrepancies between rich and poor countries involve the question of the implementation of pending accords, particularly in the areas of textiles and apparel manufacturing.

The trade agreements adopted within the framework of the 1986- 94 Uruguay Round of multilateral trade talks gave rise to implementation difficulties for developing nations, due in some cases to the complexity of the accords and in others to the disproportionate legal and financial efforts demanded of poor countries. In vain, developing countries have demanded a review of some clauses, and in other cases special treatment, to enable them to implement the agreements.

By contrast, rich countries have dragged their feet in the liberalization of the textiles and apparel industry, in which poor countries enjoy comparative advantages.

Against that backdrop of disputes and discrepancies, the representatives of the WTO member countries have renewed consultations in Doha in an attempt to narrow the gap between their positions, said Moore. However, he described the draft declaration to be discussed by the ministers as a "balanced text".

Moore noted that the Doha conference would at least be able to celebrate the admission of three new members: China, a market of 1.1 billion consumers, as well as Taiwan and Vanuatu, which will bring the number of member states to 145.

(Inter Press Service)