Brussels, 19/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - As anticipated in recent weeks, the Doha Round of the WTO will not experience any breakthrough before Easter. The hope of a definitive agreement before the end of 2011 is looking less and less likely and the usually optimistic Pascal Lamy has acknowledged that the talks are “on the verge of breakdown”.
“There is no reason to be optimistic. The negotiations are at an extremely difficult stage. Progress has been disappointing in 2011”, lamented Commissioner Karel De Gucht on 12 April, blaming “the gulf between what the developing countries are prepared to concede and what the developed countries are prepared to accept”, particularly as regards the chapter on market access for industrial products. Does this mean that the NAMA are the root of the problem? Not just them. No headway is in sight over the agricultural chapter either, warned the WTO mediator on this dossier, New Zealand Ambassador David Walker, speaking in Geneva on Monday 18 April. “No constructive compromise solution has been found to break the deadlock”, he said, after two weeks of consultations. Walker will only be submitting a “contribution” on 21 April, rather than a draft revised compromise, as initially planned. On the agricultural plank, the stances of the 153 member countries have hardly changed since the revised compromise text on the conditions for the liberalisation of trade, which was published in December 2008, Walker explained. Essentially, the question of the special safeguard mechanism (SSM) continues to be a major stumbling block, despite a recent proposed compromise tabled by the Philippines. Unfortunately, the same is true of the industrial products chapter, where the demands of the United States and the other rich countries for the emerging countries to reduce the highest customs duty rates have met with the persistent refusal of Brazil, China and India.
A meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee is set to take stock of the situation on 29 April. According to Walker, the next stages will be discussed after this meeting. According to diplomatic sources, the negotiations are unlikely to take off before June-July. For his part, the usually optimistic Pascal Lamy acknowledged in Washington last weekend that the Doha Round was “on the verge of breakdown”. The WTO director-general once again alerted the capitals to the cost of a definitive breakdown of the round of multilateral negotiations launched in 2001 and focusing on development. (E.H./transl.fl)