M A I N   N E W S

Cancun talks fail over North-South differences
K. R. Sudhaman

Cancun, September 15
A bitter North-South rift over industrialised nations’ demands for taking up contentious issues like trade and investment overriding agriculture spelt doom for the fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, which collapsed without coming out with a final declaration.

The talks ended late last night without any declaration as more work was needed to be done in some key areas, said a Ministerial statement issued at the end of the hard bargaining and tough negotiations that went the Seattle way four years ago.

The EU and USA blamed the developing countries, saying their delegations did not bring any proposals, but only indulged in rhetoric.

However, India and like-minded countries hit back at the rich nations, saying lack of concern for development issues of the Third World like phasing out all agriculture subsidies by powerful nations led to the collapse.

Articulating their feelings, Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley said the draft declaration which came out yesterday after three-and-a-half-days of negotiations did not reflect the aspirations of a large number of countries, particularly on Singapore and agricultural negotiations.

The Cancun meeting of the 148-member body pitted the rich nations, which favoured the starting of negotiations on what are called the Singapore issues — cross-border investment, competition policies, trade facilitation and government procurement against poor countries, which were apprehensive of giving greater market access to powerful multinationals. While the statement did not give any reason for the failure of the talks, it admitted that it was a setback to multilateral trade negotiations.

The one-page statement said a meeting of the General Council of WTO at senior officers’ level would be convened before December 15 to move towards a successful and timely conclusion of the negotiations.

Mr Jaitley claimed success in the failure as the exercise had forged a formidable alliance of developing countries to put the issue of agriculture on the centrestage of negotiations.

However, he refused to be drawn into any blame game for the collapse. He said this would not hit the future of the multilateral trading system.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, speaking on behalf of the G-22 developing countries, said the conference was a victory for developing countries, which sowed unity in pressing their demands, particularly for the reduction in agricultural subsidies.

The conference had also proved that it was not a myth that developing countries could hold together till the end, he said.

“This is an organisation governed by consensus and consensus was not there,” US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said, adding that the larger lesson of Cancun was that a useful compromise required a serious willingness to focus on work and not rhetoric to attain the fine balance between ambition and flexibility.

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, another key player in the negotiations, said failure at Cancun was not only a severe blow for the WTO, but a lost opportunity for developed and developing countries alike.

Admitting that more work needed to be done in key areas to fulfil the Doha Agenda, the Ministerial statement said, “Notwithstanding this setback, we reaffirm all our Doha declarations and decisions.” It also instructed officials to continue working on outstanding issues with a renewed sense of urgency and purpose.

WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi acknowledged that the task had become more complicated, but he did not think that they were daunted by this complication.

“We need to be flexible and really give and take. We just cannot allow this round to be derailed,” he said. — PTI

India’s viewpoint

Cancun, September 15
The following are the highlights of India’s viewpoint on the crucial issues at the WTO Ministerial Conference at Cancun.

Agriculture:

* Drastic reduction in domestic subsidies

* Reduction in export subsidies and eventual elimination

* Sharp disciplining of export credits

* Two separate proposals on tariff reduction

* Hybrid tariff reduction formula for developed countries

* Uruguay round formula for developing countries

* Special products and Special safeguard mechanism for developing countries

* Elimination of SSM available to developed countries, which the draft text completely failed to address. — PTI