Developing nations want continued Doha talks for redressing inequities

by D. Ravi Kanth

NAIROBI (16 DEC): Several developing countries on 16  December reiterated their stand for continuing the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations to address the longstanding inequities in the global trading system, particularly in the most heavily distorted agriculture trade dominated by subsidizing countries.

Developing-country ministers stated this position at the plenary meeting of the Nairobi Ministerial Conference on 16 December.

Trade ministers of India, China, South Africa, Uganda, Lesotho, Rwanda and Venezuela, among others, delivered a strong message against attempts to hijack the DDA negotiations without resolving the core issues of the Doha mandate, and to commence work on new issues.

The ministers also called for an inclusive process to finalize outcomes at the Nairobi meeting instead of pursuing “confessional” meetings to decide the deliverables.

India’s trade minister Nirmala Sitharaman said “the DDA may have run into obstacles but it is in our collective interest to continue work in all pillars, keeping its development dimension intact.”

“We are of the firm view that this Ministerial must clearly reaffirm the Doha Development Agenda and all Ministerial Declarations and Decisions taken since 2001 when we launched the Doha Round,” said Sitharaman. “These are all important – let us not waste time negotiating which of these we should reaffirm and welcome.”

The Indian minister said the ministerial meeting in Nairobi must safeguard the legitimate interests of poor farmers and the food security of hundreds of millions in developing countries. “We cannot continue with the rhetoric of a development agenda without even a reasonable attempt to address issues which are of primary concern to developing countries,” she said.

The Indian minister argued that “for decades, a handful of farm lobbies of some countries have shaped the discourse and determined the destiny of millions of subsistence farmers of the developing countries.”

Sitharaman expressed sharp concern that “the reduction in the massive subsidization of the farm sector in developed countries which was the clear-cut mandate of the DDA is now not even a subject matter of discussion today, leave aside serious negotiations.”

“It is regrettable that longstanding issues of interest to a large number of developing countries are being put aside for the future and new issues of recent vintage are being taken up with unusual enthusiasm,” she said.

She pointed to the remarks of the Kenyan president that at a time when the meeting is being held in Africa, “Africa’s farmers simply cannot compete against heavily subsidized farmers in developed countries.”

The Indian minister said the situation is the same in all developing countries. India, she said, would “resist the temptation of overloading the WTO agenda at this stage with ‘new issues’, when we are still grappling with the completion of work in the DDA.”

Many other developing countries who spoke at the plenary also came out strongly in support of continuing the DDA negotiations until they accomplish the mandated goals of the DDA. (SUNS8158)                                        

Third World Economics, Issue No. 605, 16-30 November 2015, p12