TRADE: India To Seek Changes in WTO Draft in Singapore

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 2001 (IPS) - India will rally like-minded developing countries to press for changes in the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s draft declaration readied for next month’s ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar.

India’s Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran says he is confident there will be an opportunity to change the draft to accommodate the interests of developing countries during the informal, pre-conference meet for trade ministers to be held in Singapore this weekend.

Maran’s concerns revolve around fresh commitments demanded of members by the draft declaration which proposes 22 new issues for immediate decision by the General Council and 19 more to be taken up at the Fourth Ministerial Meeting in Doha, Nov 9-13.

“This runs counter to the stand taken by developing countries that wish to see implementation of earlier commitments before the WTO takes up new ones,” Maran said.

The WTO wants the upcoming conference to open a new round of multilateral trade talks after its earlier attempts failed at the last conference, held in the U.S. city of Seattle in late 1999.

“The draft package given for implementation falls short of our expectations and we have conveyed that,” said commerce secretary, Prabir Sengupta who was also hopeful that there would be a chance for corrective steps in Singapore.

Dismay at the ‘Draft Decision on Implementation and Concerns’ and the ‘Draft Ministerial Declaration’ began to be voiced by leading activists soon after the papers were released on Sep. 26 at the General Council Meeting in Geneva.

According to the U.K.-based non-government organisation Oxfam International, the draft declaration reinforced fears that the powerful trading nations were once again mouthing ritual phrases about sustainable development while pursuing the narrow interests of their large corporations.

Oxfam regretted that in the two years following the breakdown of the Seattle summit, richer members of the WTO have “failed to respond to the need for the world trading system to be managed in the interests of poorer people and countries”.

Oxfam and other activists have warned that the draft not only threatened livelihoods but also jeopardised the multilateral management of trade by alienating the developing countries which make up the majority of the WTO.

“The draft confirms that WTO is an asymmetric body, biased in favour of the North against the South, with rules written to protect the interests of corporations and extinguish the rights of people.” said Vanadana Shiva, director of the India-based, Research Foundation for Science, Ecology and Technology.

Shiva, a well-know international campaigner for food security and small farmers’ rights was particularly concerned at the push given towards implementation of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement rather than reforming it.

“In the built-in review of TRIPS in the WTO agreement, people and governments have been calling for reform to stop biopiracy, to exclude the patenting of life-forms and to ensure that countries can use measures such as compulsory licensing to ensure availability and access to affordable medicines and seeds,” she pointed out.

Countries like India have also been negotiating for an enlargement of geographical indicators beyond items like champagne and “Scotch Whiskey” to cover seriously threatened agricultural produce such as the ‘basmati’ variety of rice and Darjeeling tea.

While developing countries have demanded that the Convention on Biodiversity take precedence over TRIPS wherever conflicts arose between the WTO and multilateral environment agreements, the draft favours TRIPS as the guide for work on indigenous knowledge and biodiversity.

Shiva said the General Council was weak on food security and merely asks member countries to exercise restraint in challenging measures notified under the ‘green box’ by developing countries.

In agriculture, “green box” subsidies are allowed as long as they don’t distort trade, or at most cause minimal distortion.

“At a time when globalisation and trade liberalisation forced by WTO and the World Bank is pushing thousands of people to starvation and thousands of farmers to suicide, the draft is a commitment to continue genocide,” she said.

Oxfam said it would like to see the WTO agenda focusing on reform of agricultural trade over the next two years with a view to enhancing food security and improving market access to Northern markets for developing countries while phasing out agricultural export subsidies.

Dissatisfaction over the draft may have worsened opposition by the developing countries to a new comprehensive round that both the United States and the European Union have been assiduously advocating.

Maran said while India had tried to evolve a consensus among developing countries on a new round of trade talks there was none in sight .

India, he said, has suggested creation of a fast-track mechanism with a fixed timeframe to resolve implementation issues pending from the Uruguay round and clear indications that developing countries would not be made to “pay again”.

Before the draft was released in Geneva, trade officials here were hopeful of a consensus on a limited (rather than a comprehensive) round and one which considered mandated negotiations, mandated reviews and even industrial tariffs.