TRADE: WTO Expands, China Marks Year as Discord Simmers

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Dec 11 2002 (IPS) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) continues to attract new members despite the fact that multilateral negotiations continue to be bogged down by disputes between the developing South and the industrialised North.

China, which struggled for 15 years to become part of the international trade system, finally acceded to the WTO a year ago, on Dec 11, 2001.

The WTO General Council, meeting in Geneva through Thursday, approved the addition of Armenia to its membership, on the heels of Macedonia’s accession, bringing the member-country total to 146, once the parliaments of these two nations ratify the accession protocols.

The organisation’s director-general Supachai Panitchpakdi commented, "With Armenia’s accession, the WTO makes another important step in the goal of embracing all nations engaged in international trade."

However, the open-door policy the WTO has followed since its creation in 1995 has encountered an exception in the case of Iran. For the eighth time in the last year and a half, the United States this week blocked the process for Iran’s accession to the multilateral trade body.

Malaysia’s representative to the WTO, M. Superamaniam, had proposed creating a working group to study Iran’s petition for accession. But the U.S. ambassador, Linnet Deily, rejected the idea, responding that her government is in the process of reviewing its relations with Tehran.

Once again, the U.S. delegation denied the consensus necessary to set up a working group, the first step in the long procedure that leads to the admission of a new member.

A procedure that China finally completed a year ago Wednesday. Marking China’s first anniversary, the General Council highlighted Beijing’s efforts to comply with the trade commitments it has adopted.

Sergio Marchi, chairman of the WTO General Council and representative of Canada, commented that China’s diligence in implementing international trade agreements "ends the year on high note" for the institution’s activities.

China, with its 1.3 billion inhabitants, became the largest consumer market on the WTO roster, and has eight years to adapt its economy to comply with the multilateral system’s rules.

The General Council also approved this week a series of guidelines to facilitate and accelerate the accession negotiations for what are known as the least developed countries (LDCs).

Supachai mentioned the vulnerability of the LDCs, particularly the structural difficulties they face in a globalised economy.

The participation of the 49 LDCs in global trade fell from 0.8 percent in 1980 to 0.5 percent currently. Reversing the marginalization of the least developed countries is one of the major challenges of the multilateral trade system, said the WTO chief.

But the provisions approved for speeding up the LDCs’ entry into the organisation still require a series of additional application procedures.

Supachai stressed that "the guidelines need to be matched with actual and meaningful implementation. I will report on this particular to ministers at Cancún," the Mexican resort city that will host the WTO ministerial conference in September 2003.

The delay in implementation of trade agreement measures that would benefit developing countries has become one of the main sources of tension within the WTO, pitting the South against the industrialised North.

Numerous provisions adopted during the Uruguay Round of trade talks (1986-1994), which gave rise to the WTO itself, are still pending.

The bloc of developing countries had won a pledge from the rest of the WTO members to resolve these matters this year, but Supachai admitted this week that agreement does not exist for resolving the pending issues by the end of December.

To achieve accord on many of the issues of implementation that are of concern to the developing world will mean putting off the deadline at least until June 2003, though the nations of the South are opposed to any further delays.

A similar fate has met the issue of the special and differentiated treatment that the multilateral system grants developing countries in recognition of the profound structural differences between them and the industrialised nations.

The negotiation of the provisions necessary to implement such treatment has also been deferred. The representatives of the countries of the South blame the delay on the nations of the North.

In addition to these obstacles are difficulties plaguing the talks on agriculture and services trade, and the row between a small group of industrialised countries – led by the United States and Switzerland – and the entire developing world about access to low-cost medicines.

Supachai commented that the delegations of the WTO member countries are "correct to have concerns about the way things are going."

The director-general exhorts the WTO members to give a "human touch" to the trade negotiations, "particularly when dealing with development issues."

TRADE: WTO Expands, China Marks Year as Discord Simmers

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Dec 11 2002 (IPS) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) continues to attract new members despite the fact that multilateral negotiations continue to be bogged down by disputes between the developing South and the industrialised North.
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