The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Saturday, September 13, 2003, Chandigarh, India

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Rich, poor nations clash over farm issue in WTO
India, 15 other countries form league
K. R. Sudhaman

CII's Tarun Das and US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J. Donahue at the CII-US Chamber of Commerce meeting held in Cancun on Friday. — PTI photo

Cancun (Mexico), September 12
The conference of the World Trade Organisation currently under way here was caught in a deadlock over attempts by the rich nations to steamroll their way on trade and investment issues as developing countries, including India, opposed the bypassing of the contentious subject of agriculture.

India and 15 other countries got into a new league G-16 to oppose the conference taking up Singapore issues like investment and competition policy rules, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement. Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley and Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz told a joint press conference that they would not agree to starting negotiations on the four Singapore issues as they felt that the clarification process should continue.

“I am afraid there are only two options on the issue — to either start negotiations or not to start and there is no third or soft option. We have decided that it should not be started at Cancun as there is no explicit consensus on the modalities for starting the negotiations,” Ms Rafidah said immediately after the first meeting of the grand alliance. “The countries that do not want negotiations are in majority,” she said ruling out any unbundling of the four issues as a compromise.

The new alliance of G-16 includes China, Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Zambia.

Ms Rafidah said the group of developing countries was for decoupling of issues and against the EU proposal to link time-bound elimination of farm subsidies to starting negotiations on Singapore issues.

Meanwhile, the five facilitators, appointed by conference Chairman and Mexican Foreign Minister Louis Ernesto Debrez to resolve contentious issues like agriculture and Singapore, held parleys with member countries and pressure groups.

On the contentious Singapore issues which provide for, among other things, working out investment and competition rules within WTO, a facilitator, Canadian Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew, said at the end of the first day a number of developing countries, including India, had pointed out that it was evident that there was no consensus negotiations on Singapore issues.

“There are two options — either to agree to launch negotiations or refer the issue back to Geneva for clarification and India,” he said on behalf of some members that have submitted a paper identifying points for further clarification.

A smaller group of developing countries said that each Singapore issue should be considered on its own merits. They supported negotiations on two issues — trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement — as they were more ripe for negotiations in comparison with investment and competition policy, he said adding the informal meeting would continue tomorrow.

On agriculture where developed and developing countries are sharply divided, Singapore Trade Minister George Yeo Yong-Bon, who has been appointed facilitator, threatened to come out with his own draft if various groups having divergent views did not have a meeting point by tomorrow. — PTI