UNCTAD´s Secretary-General and the Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said this morning that political courage and unity were vital if the recently revived Doha trade negotiations were to yield a new agreement that would help the world´s poorer countries benefit more fully from world economic growth.
Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza, Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization, termed the long-running talks "the biggest challenge for the WTO since its creation in 1995." She added, "If Doha were to die, it would be a blow to the poor." The Doha Round began in 2001.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpadki said countries should be as united as possible in lending the fullest possible support to the negotiations. Although globalization and liberalization had been providing positive results for some parts of the world and some parts of the population, the results had not always been equal, he said -- there was a need to make globalization inclusive, to put a human face on world economic growth.
The remarks of the two high-level officials came as UNCTAD´s Trade and Development Board reviewed "developments and issues in the post-Doha work programme of particular concern to developing countries."
Mr. Supachai said the implications for poor countries of the Doha negotiations remained critical. Among areas of concern were enhancing access for developing-country exports to major world markets; addressing "asymmetric treatment resulting in trade distortions"; agreeing on "special and differential treatment" for the world´s poorest countries; designing and implementing the vast Aid for Trade programme intended to help developing nations assemble the basic ingredients for participating in the global economy; and protecting the multilateral trading system from possible erosion caused by the rapidly growing number of bilateral and regional trade agreements.
Ms. Rugwabiza, the WTO Deputy Director-General, said the negotiations had reached the most difficult stage, and it was necessary for all to work together to "unlock the economic potential of developing countries, to use trade development as an engine to accelerate growth and achieve some of the promises" of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations.
The MDGs include the target of halving extreme poverty by 2015.
Globalization was certainly creating its success stories among developing countries, Ms. Rugwabiza said, resulting in rising living standards and poverty reduction in a number of nations, led by the "new model" offered by such countries as China, India, and Brazil. But progress was far from universal. The least-developed countries (LDCs), for example, had only been able to benefit marginally from the recent tremendous expansion of world trade, and their share of world exports today was estimated at between 0.6% and 0.8% of world imports. The continued marginalization of LDCs had not, however, diminished the WTO´s acceptance that trade could be a positive engine for growth, poverty reduction and human development, she said, nor had it diminished collective determination to face together the challenge of making a fairer world trading system for all its members, including the weakest.
She said it was hoped that the Chairs of the agriculture and non-agricultural market-access (NAMA) negotiations would be in a position to issue revised texts in the coming weeks. To reach convergence and build on progress already made in the area of special and differential treatment, she said, members would need "to demonstrate a greater degree of flexibility" and remain focused and realistic about what could be accomplished.
Regardless of the proliferation of regional and bilateral trade agreements, nobody would doubt the interests of developing countries in being actors in a strong and fair multilateral trading system, Ms. Rugwabiza said. Market access resulting from WTO negotiations was global and could not be matched by any bilateral trade agreements.
A series of national delegations spoke, covering such topics as market access for agricultural products; the potential costs of a failure of the Doha round; the importance of protecting the "development content" of the negotiations despite pressures to reach an agreement; the need to take the special requirements of LDCs into account in the trade talks; and the importance of discussions on services, rules, and trade facilitation. There were several requests that UNCTAD expand its support to help developing countries understand and participate in what were proving to be very complex and demanding negotiations.
The Trade and Development Board, UNCTAD´s governing body, will conclude its 54th session on 11 October.
