By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Jul 29 2004 (IPS)

A recasting of the leading roles in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has brought surprises in the Doha round of multilateral trade talks, with two long-time stars, Canada and Japan, falling into secondary roles while Brazil and India have risen into prominent positions in the negotiations.

Until just over a year ago, it was inconceivable for the Canadian and Japanese representatives to be left out of the major performances put on by the multilateral trade system in its programme for the expansion of the freeing up of markets.

Since the creation of the WTO in 1995, the two countries appeared season after season as members of the star-studded cast known as the Quad – along with the world’s two leading trade powers, the United States and European Union (EU) – which had long been the main protagonist in the process of trade liberalisation.

But in the past few weeks, the delegations from Canada and Japan have been glaringly absent from the strategic negotiations of the critical phase of the Doha round, which was launched in November 2001 in that city, the capital of Qatar, during the fourth WTO ministerial conference.

Activist Aileen Kwa with Focus on the Global South noted the ”unhappiness that many developing countries – and even developed countries like Canada and Switzerland – have over the current process, where only five delegations…are locked in negotiations.”

The direction taken by the talks, whose first stage is to be completed by Friday, was once again outlined by the United States and EU, although this time they were accompanied by Australia, Brazil and India. They are known as the ‘Five Interested Parties’ (FIPs).

Brazil and India, meanwhile, reflect the interests of a bloc of 19 nations, known as the Group of 20 (G20), which also includes China. Since it emerged nearly a year ago, the group has been defending the trade interests of countries of the developing South.

Canada is one of the members of the Cairns group, and as such has only received the information that Australia has made available in the past few days after the lengthy closed-door sessions among the FIPs, which focused on the controversial negotiations on agriculture.

Japan found itself even more out in the cold as one of the Group of 10 (G10) major net food importers that oppose any broad cuts to the high import tariffs they levy on agricultural goods.

The G10 has no direct representative among the FIPs, and thus suffered from a lack of information, which drew harsh complaints from the representatives of Switzerland, another of the heavyweights of trade left out of the small group of central negotiators who met on the sidelines of the Tuesday through Friday WTO General Council meeting.

The delegation of Switzerland, which coordinates the G10, said the negotiations have been a ”catastrophe” and have been conducted in a ”scandalous” manner. The Swiss representatives also said there is a high level of frustration among all of the WTO members excluded from the FIPs.

Brazil and India, meanwhile, have gained protagonism since the emergence of the G20 a few weeks before the fifth WTO ministerial conference in the Mexican resort city of Cancun, in September 2003.

The two giants of the South have basically ended up representing, in a tacit manner, the great majority of poor nations during the process that began after the fiasco of Cancun, when the talks were derailed over deep divisions between developing and industrialised nations – the first sign of the extent of the danger faced by the Doha round.

Brazilian and Indian negotiators actively took part in drafting a compromise proposal on agriculture designed by the FIPs and presented on Jul. 16.

The content of that agreement will be incorporated into the document that the 147 WTO member countries are to discuss over the weekend, to come up with the framework for moving forward in the second phase of the Doha round.

Zambian Ambassador Love Mtesa said the various alliances of developing countries had submitted their negotiating proposals to Brazil and India, to represent them in the talks among the FIPs.

This week’s negotiations between the closed group of ”the Big Five” not only angered negotiators, but representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well.

Chandrakant Patel, with the Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), said the current ”exclusionary” process is unacceptable.

But Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told journalists that ”It is better to participate in the five, rather than leave it to the United States and the European Communities to negotiate and evolve a package.”

Mtesa said India and Brazil should not be blamed, and added that he believed they were doing a good job.

WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi said the agreement ”is a welcome and important input into the talks,” but warned that ”no WTO agriculture framework deal is possible without support from the rest of the membership.”

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