A paltry step forward for the WTO
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/Agencies) The agreement reached at the World Trade Organisation's Sixth Ministerial Conferencewhich ended yesterday in Hong Kong leaving decisions on agriculture, industrial goods and services till next yearappears to all to be a paltry compromise useful only to avoid declaring the institution a failure.
The 19-page agreement, approved by the 149 member states, includes an end to export supports for domestic farming by 2013 and cotton by 2006. Industrialised countries also agreed to grant the world's poorest nations largely unfettered quota-free and duty-free access to their markets. At least 97 per cent of their exports will qualify for this preferential treatment by 2008.
Negotiators failed however to reach an agreement on lower agricultural import tariffs, on eliminating domestic cotton industry supports, and on providing unconditional access for least developed countries, but they gave themselves a deadline of April 30 next year to come up with a solution.
Domestic subsidies in industrial nations play a far more important roleand consume billions of taxpayer dollarsthan export supports, and distort competition.
Industrial nations have indicated their willingness to discuss agricultural subsidies; in return, developing countries should be prepared to open their services and manufacturing sectors.
Still, after growing concerns that the round of negotiations might fail, all participants reacted positively to the announcement that a deal had been struck.
"We managed to put the talks back on track after a period of hibernation," said WTO director-general Pascal Lamy, adding that this week's meeting constituted "a real step [forward], but a modest step" to implement the Doha round started in 2001.
The Honk Kong Conference skirted failure despite fears that it might be a repeat of the Cancun fiasco two years ago because of the parties' initial intransigence.
"The ministerial declaration represents a significant advance from where we started five days ago," said John Tsang Chun-wah, Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology.
"We moved forward," said United States trade representative Rob Portman, but admitted "there's still a lot of work to do".
Developing nations greeted the agreement with a mixture of cautious optimism and disappointment that more was not achieved.
"I think that what is in the document I would qualify as modest, but not insignificant," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said.
Brazil is a key member the G-20 group of major developing economies, which also includes China and India and has been pushing hard for greater access to the European Union's agricultural market.
The issue of US subsidies to domestic cotton growers also remains unresolved, leaving African farmers shut out of the lucrative US market.
Despite the agreement, many analysts fear that the WTO itself might collapse, entering the world into a new era of bilateral and multilateral agreements and/or heightened protectionism.
"[T]he trend towards regionalisation and away from global multilateralism is going to be very hard to reverse," David O'Rear, chief economist for the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, said.
Outside of the Conference, protesters clashed with police in the past two days.
On Saturday, demonstrators charged the police barriers in order to get inside the conference.
About a thousand people were arrested, many of whom South Korean farmers188 were released today, whilst others risk being charged with "illegal gathering" and doing jail time.
The South Korean government expressed concern about the detention of its farmers.
Vice-Foreign Minister Lee Kyu-hyung is due to fly to Hong Kong today for talks with officials over the farmers' fate. (PB)
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25/10/2019 13:10
14/12/2005
