Brussels, 03/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - Pascal Lamy continued to work in August in the weeks following the WTO ministerial meeting on 21-29 July (EUROPE 9714). His efforts aimed at relaunching negotiations that mainly failed because of the technical and political disagreement between the US and India over the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM), which could enable developing countries to increase their tariffs in the event of a surge of imports or fall in market prices.
The WTO director met several negotiators and leaders from the big trade powers to discuss the relaunch of talks on modalities for liberalising trade in agriculture and industrial products (NAMA). Mr Lamy also met with the US representative for trade, Susan Schwab, on 22 August in Washington. Ms Schwab mentioned September as a possible deadline and also encouraged Mr Lamy to get senior leaders together “as soon as possible” in Geneva to examine new ideas for overcoming the problems encountered in July and prevent any progress being undermined. Ms Schwab suggested that these discussions begin with a “small group” of negotiators which did not necessarily have to be the “G7” (Australia, Brazil, China, US, India, Japan and the EU) at the centre of the July meeting. According to the Indian newspaper, Business Standard, the G7 could be joined by Indonesia, Malaysia and Uruguay. Mr Lamy had previously gone to New Delhi at the beginning of August where the Indian minister for trade, Kamal Nath, supported the idea of resuming negotiations, “only if developed countries come to the table to give something and not just to gain something”. Brazil is also very much involved. Its president, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva has multiplied contacts with the US, India and China in an attempt to find a minimum of common ground to unblock negotiations. The Indonesian minister for trade, Mari Pangestu, said that G-33 Friends of Special Products countries were “working relentlessly to elaborate a workable compromise”.
Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner called, at the end of July, for renewed dialogue in the autumn after a summer of reflection. He said that he and his team were planning to return to Geneva, not to take up from where they left off but to seek assurances that what they had achieved was not totally lost. On 4 September, Mandelson will meet the Swiss minister for the economy, Doris Leuthard.
The Geneva meeting mainly failed because of the question of SSM. On 29 July, the US rejected India's final offer to enable developing countries authorise a 25% rise in customs duties in the event of a rise of at least 15% in imports. Washington wanted to limit this threshold to 40%. In a report published at the beginning of August, which drew up a balance sheet of the July ministerial meeting, the WTO agricultural mediator, Crawford Falconer from New Zealand, said that divergences on SSM were political as well as technical. He said that there was still work to be done, not just on the SSM but also on cotton, which he said had not been tackled seriously because of the risk of the SSM capsizing everything, as well as new tariff quotas on sensitive products and tariff simplification. Falconer warned that each day weakened the will to compromise, which had for most of the time been evident in the last week of July. Falconer will stand down from his position of president of the WTO agricultural negotiating committee before the end of the year. According to Business Standard, India is very keen on obtaining the post left vacant by Wellington's representative.
In a declaration published on 2 September, Angel Gurría, the Secretary General of the OECD, which brings together developed countries, called on WTO to “go the last mile” to conclude the round. “It is in our power to give an immensely positive signal by concluding the round. Opening up markets further in the Doha negotiations is one of the most important contributions we can make to stimulating the word economy and to allowing all nations to benefit from global economic progress. Developing and emerging economies must be enabled to improve their own economic prospects by getting better access to growing markets, and seeing subsidies reduced that distort completion with their producers. At the same time it is important to remember the experience of many rapidly growing economies that markets open to foreign products have proven a most successful ingredient for economic growth. The serious efforts made in July testify that the benefits of open markets are well understood, particularly at a time when the global economy is showing signs of weakness. Ministers were in reach of a package that, if agreed, would make the Doha Round one of the most successful round of GATT/WTO negotiations ever. What is needed now is the political will, including at the highest level of governments, to go the last mile. Short term political concerns must not get in the way of achieving the global public good that is now so clearly in sight. The process to get there may take a while, but the sooner it is achieved the better it can contribute to stimulating the ailing global economy”. (E.H./trans/rh)