Informal mini-ministerial for Paris in June

An informal meeting of some 30 trade ministers to take place in June will likely see a renewed push for the Doha Round “recalibration” promoted by the WTO Director-General and major developed countries.

by D. Ravi Kanth

GENEVA: Trade ministers from around 30 countries are due to have an informal meeting in Paris in June on the sidelines of the annual ministerial meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) where the developed countries and WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo are expected to renew and push their “recalibration” approach to conclude the Doha Round negotiations, according to several trade envoys.

Australia has convened this informal meeting as a half-day event at the OECD headquarters in Paris to finalize the post-Bali work programme on a “recalibration approach”, the envoys told the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS).

The issues sought to be thrashed out at the meeting include:

1. the outcomes ministers want to see in the post-Bali work programme;

2. other outcomes to be achieved by the 10th Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in December (15-18 December); and

3. the work that needs to be done between now and the Ministerial Conference to achieve those outcomes.

Rubber-stamping recalibration?

Canberra has invited around 30 trade ministers from developed, developing and least-developed countries to ensure that the plan of action drawn up in consultations with the DG is rubber-stamped at the meeting so that the DG can come back to the WTO and tell members that it is agreed by trade ministers from all major regions, said an African trade envoy.

More importantly, the Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb and his Kenyan counterpart Amina Mohamed, who will chair the 10th Ministerial Conference, will showcase the decisions reached at the informal ministerial meeting as the “doable” outcomes based on the recalibration approach, the envoy added.

Developing and least-developed countries remain clueless about the need for the “recalibration” approach, particularly for whom it is being cobbled and who are its demandeurs, said another trade envoy.

“Is the recalibration approach meant to kill the Doha Development Agenda on which the Round is premised?” the trade envoy wondered.

“We know that this is the last major round to address the continued inequities in the global trading system and afterwards the WTO will be reduced to servicing the plurilateral agreements for the developed and some developing countries,” the envoy added.

Until now, members are clearly divided on the need for recalibration, which is being promoted by the DG and major developed countries such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia and Switzerland among others.

The differences over the post-Bali work programme based on the recalibrated framework came into the open at several meetings over the last five months.

The developed countries, led by the United States, have made a strong pitch for lowering the level of ambition so that they don’t have to pay by reducing trade-distorting domestic subsidies, export subsidies and export credits in agriculture, several developing-country envoys maintained. At the same time, without paying any price, they want to be rewarded with market access concessions from developing countries in agriculture, industrial products and services.

But the large majority of developing and least-developed countries have been insisting on tackling the central issues of a development round such as reform of trade-distorting domestic subsidies in the US and EU countries along with tariff reduction commitments based on special and differential treatment flexibilities as proposed in the existing Doha Round mandates. They insist these must be respected for concluding the Round.

The DG however is making a Herculean effort to set aside all the previous mandates, especially the 2008 revised draft modalities in agriculture and industrial goods, so as to ensure that the Round is concluded without any gains for the developing and poorest countries, said a South American trade official.

During his recent consultations with trade envoys from the US, the EU, China, India, Brazil, Australia and Japan, Azevedo proposed an average formula framework without any flexibilities for replacing the tiered formula approach in agriculture products and the Swiss formula for industrial goods, the official said.

The US, the EU, Japan and Australia have strongly supported the DG’s approach, while China and India raised a host of systemic concerns based on the existing Doha Round mandates.

“It is clear that the recalibrated approach is meant to serve the mercantilist interests of the major developed countries so that they can simply run away without undertaking the commitments that they are otherwise required to implement if the negotiations are concluded on the basis of the current mandates,” a trade envoy told SUNS.

Trade ministers from around 30 countries – Argentina, Bangladesh (representing the group of least-developed countries), Barbados (representing the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group), Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, European Commission, Hong Kong-China, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Lesotho (representing the African Group), Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Senegal, South Africa, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei, Tanzania, Turkey and the United States – will take part in the half-day meeting. (SUNS8027)                   

Third World Economics, Issue No. 594, 1-15 Jun 2015, p9