TRADE: Doha Round of Talks Now Has Faces and Names

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Feb 16 2002 (IPS) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has cleared one more hurdle on the way to new multilateral round of negotiations with the approval of the list of chairpersons for the committees and groups that will carry the process forward.

Probably the most strategic position in the negotiations over the next three years, the chair of the special session of the Committee on Agriculture, was entrusted to Stuart Harbinson, ambassador from the Hong Kong special administrative region of China.

The representatives of the 144 WTO member states are nearly unanimous in the belief that progress and outcomes of the negotiations on farming matters will determine the fate of the new round of trade talks convened by the ministerial conference held in Doha, Qatar, last November.

The opening of agricultural markets will put to the test the true vocation of the industrial countries, which developing nations accuse of maintaining a double standard when it comes to trade liberalisation.

The results of the previous Uruguay Round of multilateral trade talks, conducted from 1986 to 1994, led to an almost total removal of protectionist barriers for industry, where the wealthy countries of the North have the advantage, say negotiators from the developing South.

Meanwhile, in spite of the reforms introduced by the Uruguay Round, subsidies and government intervention persist in farming, a sector that is the mainstay of developing countries.

Harbinson presided Friday over the WTO’s General Council, the maximum authority of the organisation during the recesses between ministerial conferences. His designation to the Committee on Agriculture won the support from the vast majority of developing countries, as well as from several in the industrialised world.

The Committee on Agriculture as a permanent body of the WTO will carry out its normal activities under the chairmanship of Magdi Farahat, of Egypt. Harbinson will only preside over the special sessions, those dedicated to negotiating a farming trade treaty, which are slated to conclude with the rest of the Doha Round by Jan 1, 2005.

The leadership of the General Council, a post which is rotated yearly between representatives from the WTO’s four regional groups, will now be held by the head of the Canadian delegation, Sergio Marchi.

Another key group, the Dispute Settlement Body, which resolves trade disagreements between WTO member countries, will be chaired by Uruguayan ambassador Carlos Pérez del Castillo.

The General Council named the heads of the 17 regular bodies of the WTO for the usual one-year stint, until the end of 2002.

But it also named eight people to posts with terms lasting until the next ministerial conference in 2003 to head committees established by the Trade Negotiations Committee to guide the work of the Doha Round.

WTO director-general Mike Moore applauded the decisions, commenting that in just three months’ time the member governments had approved the institution’s budget with a substantial increase and established Mexico as the venue for the Fifth Ministerial Conference, to take place in 2003.

In this short period, said Moore, they also agreed “on the structure for the Doha Development Agenda negotiations and now the roster of chairpersons to lead those negotiations.”

Nevertheless, the process of selecting the individuals to head the various committees and groups proved an arduous task, reflecting a common dynamic within the WTO, which is operates based on consensus.

At Friday’s meeting, numerous delegations from developing countries objected to the way the consultations were carried out in convening the list of chairpersons.

Although the meetings this time were more encompassing than they have been in the past, the methods employed left many representatives unsatisfied, said a Latin American negotiator who spoke on condition of anonymity.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said that Harbinson recognised the validity of the criticisms and proposed creating a committee of former chairpersons of the General Council to study new consultative methods.

After the failure suffered at the WTO ministerial conference in the U.S. city of Seattle in 1999, and even at the Doha conference last November, there were voices of disagreement heard regarding the criteria of consulting a select group of countries, which excluded most of the developing countries.

In addition to Marchi, Pérez del Castillo, Harbinson and Farahat, the other chairpersons named Friday were Amina Chawahir Mohamed (Kenya), Trade Policy Review Body; M.Supperamaniam (Malaysia), Council for Trade in Goods; and Mary Whelan (Ireland), Council for Trade in Services.

Heading the Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration is Neil McMillan (Britain); the Committee on Balance-of-Payments Restrictions, Anda Cristina Filip (Romania); Committee on Trade and Development, Toufiq Ali (Bangladesh); Committee on Regional Trade Agreements, Boniface Guwa Chidyausiku (Zimbabwe); and the Committee on Trade and Environment, Oguz Demiralp (Turkey).

The list continues with the Working Group on the Relationship between Trade and Investment, Luiz Felipe de Seixas Corrêa (Brazil); Working Group on the Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy, Frédéric Jenny (France); Working Group on Transparency in Government Procurement, Ronald Saborío Soto (Costa Rica); Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance, Hernando José Gómez (Colombia); and the Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology, Stefán Haukur Jóhanesson (Iceland).

The remaining bodies created for the new round of talks are: the Council for Trade in Services, Special Session, Alejandro Jara (Chile); Negotiating Group on Non-Agricultural Market Access, Pierre-Luis Girard (Switzerland); Negotiating Group on Rules, Timothy John Groser (New Zealand); Committee on Trade and Environment, Special Session, Yolande Biké (Gabon); Dispute Settlement Body, Special Session, Pèter Balás (Hungary); and the Committee on Trade and Development, Special Session, Ransford Smith (Jamaica).

Finally, the regular Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, will be chaired by Eduardo Pérez Motta (Mexico), with Eui Yong Chung (South Korea) presiding over the special negotiating sessions.