Brussels, 31/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The last report from Pascal Lamy, who will leave his job at the head of the WTO at the end of August, gives an update on progress in the work needed ahead of a partial agreement on the Doha Round at the next WTO ministerial conference.
For his last meeting of the WTO trade negotiations committee on 22 July, the outgoing WTO boss, Pascal Lamy, hailed the increased level of momentum in the Doha Round negotiations over recent months - negotiations that have been moribund since 2008 with the failure of a global agreement during his first mandate.
The consultations that have taken place in Geneva for the last two months have brought about a “much clearer” road to Bali, where the 159 WTO member countries hope to conclude a partial agreement on three subjects during the ninth ministerial conference on 3-6 December: - trade facilitation; special and differentiated treatment including the needs of the least developed countries (LDCs); and some elements of the agricultural chapter.
“Also encouraging is the increased level of momentum in substantive engagement (…). Today, we have a much sharper sense of the key issues that remain for urgent decision”, Lamy said, but warning that the member countries “are not yet there”. “I would say that the glass is two-thirds full.” The members must sustain “this renewed momentum and remain focused in the final stretch from the autumn”, he stated. Lamy will leave his job on 30 August.
With regard to the agricultural chapter, the discussions are progressing “very slowly”, warned the head of the WTO agricultural negotiations committee - the New Zealand ambassador John Adank. Three subjects are under discussion on this chapter: - a proposal from the G33 developing countries, led by India and Indonesia, targeting the constitution of public stocks for food security and internal food aid; a proposal from the G20 emerging countries, led by Brazil, on the removal of subsidies in 2013 for the export of agricultural products, according to the modalities planned in Hong Kong in 2005; a proposal from the G20 on the management of tariff quotas for imports.
The chapter on export subsidies remains the most sensitive. Lamy stated on 22 July that a partial application of the chapter on export competition without parallel results on the other key elements of the Doha package was not, in the eyes of the member countries that have the largest export subsidy commitments, a “viable option” for the Bali meeting.
Lamy's farewell. “I think it's fair to say that, together, we have strengthened the WTO as the global trade body, as a major pillar of global economic governance”, Lamy said in his farewell statement to the WTO General Council on 24 July. “Despite the heavy headwinds and the turmoil in the global economy, as well as on the geo-political scene, together we have made this organisation larger and stronger”, he added. Lamy will be succeeded by Brazil's ambassador to the WTO, Roberto Azevedo, on 1 September. Lamy, a former EU trade commissioner, will not have managed to bring the Doha Round negotiations to a successful conclusion in his two four-year mandates. The negotiations were initiated in 2001. (EH/transl.fl)