WTO talks turn to needs of developing nations
WTO talks turn to needs of developing nations
Agence France-Presse, Geneva
Trading nations were turning their attention to the needs of poor
countries in WTO talks on Wednesday, a day after acknowledging
they face a watered-down ministerial conference next month.
Brazil and India were expected to hammer home the message that
rich fellow World Trade Organization (WTO) members must keep the
interests of developing countries at the core of negotiations to
liberalize global commerce.
Members of the 148-nation WTO are meeting this week as they
struggle to keep four-year-old negotiations on track as their
December 13-18 Hong Kong conference looms with crucial issues
still unresolved.
The conference is meant to put together a framework deal to
lower global trade barriers, a crucial stage in the WTO's Doha
Round negotiations, which were launched in 2001 with the aim of
boosting living standards in developing countries.
"The real test of this round is whether those with US$1 a day
move up, or whether those with $5,000 a day move up," Indian
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said on Tuesday.
Nath, other senior developing country trade officials and
advocacy groups regularly charge that this main plank of the Doha
Round is going forgotten, although their rich nation counterparts
reject this.
Developing countries, which accuse rich nations of using
subsidies and tariffs to skew the global farm trade against them,
have been suspicious of cuts offered by the United States and the
European Union, saying they lack real bite.
Brazil and India, who steer the powerful G-20 developing
country lobby, have resisted stepping up talks on trade in
industrial products and services, such as banking, until the farm
controversy is settled.
Nath and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim held talks in
London on Monday with counterparts from the EU, U.S. and Japan.
Afterwards, they said they had narrowed their differences but
that gaps remained.
Despite plans to start drafting a text for Hong Kong by mid-
November, negotiators are far from putting anything on paper.
As a result, WTO members meeting on Tuesday in Geneva said
they would need to shift the target for Hong Kong, doing less
than originally planned there and then possibly holding another
conference around March.
Members originally intended to complete the round in 2004 but
later set a 2006 target after repeatedly failing to overcome
disputes.
They are anxious to avoid a replay of their failed conferences
in Seattle in 1999 and Cancun in 2003, which broke down amid
spats between rich and poor.