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Will the LDCs bite Moore's bait?

By Ranjit Devraj

A cartoon that appeared in a developing country newspaper has a cherubic-looking, halo-wearing, Mike Moore asking: ''By the way did I mention that WTO is launching a new Uruguay round this year?'' At the present conference Moore has been careful to make the right noises and assure the LDCs and developing countries that he understood their concerns and tell them that ''we are working hard on implementation-related and other issues in Geneva''.

Moore is anxious about the planned launch of the new round at the Fourth WTO ministerial in Doha, Qatar in November.

''We need your support now and throughout the year to ensure the Doha Ministerial is successful and a new round with development at its core is launched.

'' At least Moore was admitting to what the LDCs have been saying all along that development has never been at the core of such negotiations.

Even if the new round does get off at Doha the WTO will have to be seen to be addressing and resolving the interests of the LDCs and the developing countries before it can conclude successfully.

Director General of the ITC, Jean-Denise Belisle who has been enthusiastically backing a new round, advices the LDCs to ''enter the dance and don't leave it till you are satisfied''.

The trouble of course is the music.

There is obvious disharmony with the interests of the United States and other majors in the developed world that want the LDCs to implement full compliance with TRIPS, TRIMS and other agreements from the minute they come aboard - rather than avail themselves of a transition period they now enjoy.

The United States has already indicated, at the present conference, a disinclination to offer the LDCs market access on the lines of the everything but arms (EBA) initiative offered them by the European Union So what can the 49 LDCs, now gathered at Brussels do for WTO's cause and what can they get in return? According to Ratnakar Adhikari, an analyst from Nepal, roping them in would give Moore and the WTO much political mileage, but little in hard economic terms.

Which means it is up to the LDCs to play the game for what it is worth and extract as much as they can before the final Declaration is signed even though the mood has been uncompromising so far in terms of a simplified ''fast-track'' accession process.

The key of course is unity and the LDCs having learned the benefits of sticking together at Seattle, are already planning to hold their own meeting to ensure coordinated action at Doha.

It should be gratifying to the LDCs that the draft declaration of the governments acknowledges that it is of vital importance that the Qatar round ''explicitly address development interests and concerns''.

''A participatory, non-discriminatory, rules-based and transparent multilateral trading system is a necessary element of an economic framework that promotes trade,'' is how the draft puts it, apparently in the hope of getting the LDCs to the dance.

But many LDCs are naturally apprehensive about a new round given that implementation of the original actually cost them billions of dollars in export earnings and more through food imports, according to UNCTAD studies.

And that, despite the various promises of special treatment on a time-frame for undertaking new obligations or other special measures - including some made to net-food importing countries - undertaken at Marrakesh.

At the original Uruguay Round (UR) the LDCs were promised heaven - benefits from trade in textiles and clothing, agriculture, services and investment none of which came through leading Bangladesh, the coordinator for the LDCs to warn of a boycott of the next round in February.

''The least developed countries will stay out if earlier decisions meant to benefit the LDCs are not implemented properly,'' Bangladesh's Minister for Commerce Abdul Jalil then declared.

Despite being hornswoggled, many of the LDCs want to go to the WTO dance.

If they do not they could end up being forced into unaffordable and disadvantageous bilateral negotiations.

''The WTO is the lesser of the two evils,'' Adhikari said.

Moore wants to start on a clean slate.

''Dwelling on the perceived injustices of the past does nothing to prevent even greater injustices in the future - many developing countries are coming round to this view.

'' According to Moore while globalisation was perceived as a threat by many LDCs a greater danger was marginalisation.

''A new round is the surest way to prevent the further marginalisation of LDCs from the world economy and to deal with the problems they may have with existing WTO agreements and the way the WTO is run.