Efforts on to formally bury DDA talks at Buenos Aires next year?

The 2017 Ministerial Conference of the WTO, to be held in Buenos Aires, could be the scene of a fierce debate among member states that determines the future of the Doha Round talks and of new issues mooted for negotiation.

by D. Ravi Kanth

GENEVA: Major developed countries and their developing-country allies along with the World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo have begun preparing the ground for formally burying the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) trade negotiations while launching negotiations for plurilateral deals on electronic commerce/digital trade or other new areas at the eleventh WTO Ministerial Conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires next year, people familiar with the development told the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS).

A meeting of the WTO General Council on 3 October formally agreed that Argentina will be the host of MC11 in 2017. This came following Uruguay’s decision to withdraw its bid to host the conference in Punta del Este. Both Argentina and Uruguay had earlier in July offered to host MC11.

According to trade officials, the dates of the conference have not yet been agreed. However, the Chair of the General Council, Ambassador Harald Neple of Norway, informed members that the dates of 4-7 December 2017 are being looked at.

An early indication of what is in the offing for MC11, to be hosted by Argentina’s new right-wing government, came at the informal heads-of-delegation (HoD) meeting on 30 September and the 3 October General Council meeting.

Ahead of these two meetings, the Director-General Azevedo had spoken his mind to the London-based The Economist magazine in its 1 October issue about imagining “the WTO brokering another global trade deal, but only when expectations have been managed down from Doha.”

(When Azevedo was Brazil’s envoy to the WTO, he had insisted that the revised 2008 draft modalities for the Doha agriculture package provided clear landing zones in a balanced and equitable framework. He had said: “The December 2008 draft modalities are the basis for negotiations and represent the end-game in terms of the landing zones of ambition. Any marginal adjustments in the level of ambition of those texts may be assessed only in the context of the overall balance of trade-offs, bearing in mind that agriculture is the engine of the Round.

(“The draft modalities embody a delicate balance achieved after ten years of negotiations. This equilibrium cannot be ignored or upset, or we will need readjustments of the entire package with horizontal repercussions. Such adjustments cannot entail additional unilateral concessions from developing countries.”)

The Director-General, according to The Economist, “remembers only too well how the WTO’s Doha round collapsed under the weight of its own ambition.” Therefore, he said, “Let’s do the trade deals that are in reach.”

The Economist wrote based on the interview with Azevedo: “[The WTO] will for now push ‘plurilateral’ deals of its own, which embrace enough WTO members to be significant but which avoid the quagmire of having to secure the agreement of all its 164 members.”

It said the WTO “already boasts some successes [in crafting plurilateral agreements]: in September, for example, China started cutting tariffs on technology goods as part of the plurilateral Information Technology Agreement.”

“From reflection to action”

In sharp contrast to his comments to  , the Director-General told members at the informal HoD meeting on 30 September that they “need to change the pace of our engagement in order to make progress.”

“I also said that we would need to move from reflection to action,” Azevedo emphasized.

He urged members to talk to each other “so that we avoid mistrust and misperceptions about what you yourselves are trying to achieve.”

Azevedo mentioned two things that would help to deal with mistrust and misperception. “First, we need clarity from the proponents on what they would like to see as a final outcome of these conversations. Some are not engaging partly because they do not have a clear sense of what others want to achieve.

“Second, we should be mindful that, in order to advance multilaterally, we should be flexible to accommodate the circumstances of different Members.”

The immediate priority, said Azevedo, is to “deepen conversations between Members to scope out the issues for MC11 – or between now and MC11” – and “go as far as our legs allow.”

“Whatever we do – on any issue – will not be the end of the road. It will be a first step,” he said.

He urged members to “look for those balancing elements that take into account Members’ different interests and positions – elements that respond to the needs of developed, developing and least-developed Members.”

“Clearly, some issues are starting to draw more attention,” Azevedo said. “These include public stockholding [programmes for food security], other agriculture-related topics, such as domestic support, and services; but also other issues such as SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises], e-commerce, services facilitation and fisheries subsidies.”

The Director-General, however, did not mention the Doha Work Programme at all.

Several developed countries such as the United States and the European Union spoke almost in tandem with what Azevedo espoused at the meeting. The US, for instance, said it is working hard for a plurilateral outcome with a group of countries on fisheries subsidies.

The EU called for outcomes in a number of areas, in particular on e-commerce, services facilitation and domestic regulation along with trade-distorting domestic subsidies and fisheries subsidies. The EU said that fisheries subsidies is a global issue, arguing that it must be addressed at the WTO.

Peru’s trade envoy Ambassador Luis Enrique Chavez Basagoitia, who is spearheading the campaign for a multilateral outcome on fisheries subsidies, said that Peru and Argentina will soon present a joint proposal to negotiate the possible elements for fisheries subsidies.

A large majority of developing countries and their major coalitions, however, called for continuing with work on outstanding issues in the Doha Work Programme, including on e-commerce based on the 1998 mandate.

The Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group called for a “development-oriented outcome at MC11, consistent with various recent global commitments and goals, in particular the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our respective national development objectives.”

Rwanda, on behalf of the ACP Group, mentioned two issues, namely agriculture domestic support and fisheries subsidies.

On agriculture, the Group said: “We must achieve a tangible outcome leading to substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support, with aim to achieving the longstanding agriculture reform. Trade-distorting domestic support continues to lead negative factors hindering the emergence of inclusive, free, fair and efficient trade in agriculture products. Gradual reduction towards full elimination of those subsidies are essential conditions to levelling playing field in the agriculture trading system.”

As regards fisheries, the ACP Group emphasized that “there is an urgency to address the dramatic situation of world’s marine fish stocks that are faced with depletion.” It maintained that members “can’t continue with business as usual in this critical situation which has heavy and multifaceted consequences at social, economic, political and environmental levels.”

Therefore, members “need to find a consensus to discipline subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and also to eliminate subsidies provided to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) [fishing].”

The ACP Group reiterated its position on “the Doha development-oriented issues”, emphasizing that “without the trade-development nexus as entrenched in the DDA and in the SDGs, the engagement of developing countries and especially LDCs [least-developed countries] in the multilateral trading system loses most of its sense.”

Morocco (on behalf of the African Group) and Benin (on behalf of the LDCs) emphasized the importance of delivering on developmental priorities such as cotton, and duty-free and quota-free market access for the LDCs. Several developing countries such as India and South Africa also touched on the unfinished Doha issues.

In short, the stage for the WTO’s eleventh ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires is set for a fierce battle between the developed countries and their developing-country allies on the one side, and the large majority of developing and poorest countries on the other, over the launching of negotiations on new issues while burying the Doha Work Programme, according to several trade envoys who attended the HoD and General Council meetings.

DG selection

On other matters, according to trade officials, the General Council Chair announced at the 3 October Council meeting that the process for the selection of the new WTO Director-General is now underway.

According to trade officials, Azevedo has informed the General Council Chair that he will submit a letter to him indicating his candidacy for a second term and that he will do that before the process formally begins on 1 December 2016.

Azevedo began his first four-year term of office as Director-General on 1 September 2013. At a media briefing on 27 July 2016, Azevedo said that even though the formal process had not yet started, he had indicated to members that he “will make himself available, if members feel that this is helpful, I will be there to go for a second term at that point in time.”

When the General Council Chair launches the process, “I will formalize this decision, but it was just an indication to avoid the rumours and avoid speculation and uncertainty,” he said at the time.

According to trade officials, under the procedures adopted in 2002 for the appointment of Directors-General, in the period of 1-31 December 2016, other candidates can be nominated by WTO members for the post.

The procedures stipulate that the appointment process shall start nine months prior to the expiry of the term of an incumbent Director-General with a notification from the Chair to the General Council. The process shall conclude with a meeting of the General Council convened not later than three months prior to the expiry of an incumbent’s term, at which a decision to appoint a new Director-General shall be taken. (SUNS8326)                                          

Additional reporting by Kanaga Raja

Third World Economics, Issue No. 626, 1-15 October 2016, pp9-10