• Coming four months are very crucial for the Doha Round
  December 27, 2006

• South Asian countries should bridge their differences on WTO issues: CUTS
  December 14, 2006

• Huge Cost of Suspension of Doha Talks: CUTS
  December 06, 2006

 Press Releases Archive...

Coming four months are very crucial for the Doha Round
December 27, 2006

“The suspension of Doha Round negotiations in July this year has brought into focus not only the substantive issues which are the subject of discord, but also institutionalised asymmetries which continue to pervade WTO after its emergence from GATT. While its professed objective is greater openness in all aspects of trade; in practice, this objective is observed in a highly selective manner that reflects the predilections and concerns of developed countries,” said Mr. S. N. Menon, Former Commerce Secretary of India. He was speaking at a review meeting of the project titled “WTO Doha Round and South Asia: Linking Civil Society with Trade Negotiations” which was held in New Delhi on 21-22 December.

CUTS International, a non-governmental research, advocacy and networking organisation is implementing this project in five South Asian countries in partnership with research institutions and civil society organisations. It is supported by Oxfam Novib, The Netherlands. More than 20 researchers, government officials and representatives from civil society organisations and business associations reviewed the research results, which are to provide negotiating inputs to South Asian governments during the Doha Round of negotiations. “Institutional development on trade policy-making through civil society’s involvement, particularly to overcome supply-side constraints and face challenges of systemic issues, is the need of the hour,” Mr. Menon added.

Speaking at the closing, India’s Commerce Secretary Mr. G. K. Pillai said: “It is crucial for countries like India that trade-distorting domestic subsidies in the rich world are reduced. We are not calling for complete elimination of all agricultural subsidies as that’s not the Doha mandate but substantial reduction. Development dimension of trade-distorting subsidies is strong.” The G-20 group of developing countries has asked US to reduce its trade-distorting domestic subsidies from the current level of US$ 20 billion to US$ 12 billion. He said that there are such five or six development dimensions, which are key for the Doha Round of negotiations to proceed towards its conclusion. “Coming four months are very crucial and civil society should play a more vigilant role to see to it that development dimensions of the Doha Round are achieved,” he added.

CUTS International’s project is focusing on five key issues of the Doha Round of negotiations. The next phase of the project will look into specific aspects and concerns of domestic preparedness in South Asian countries in order get more benefits from trade liberalisation. In this context, Mr. Pillai said, “Strong regulatory system is required to get benefits from services liberalisation. Such a system can have some non-tariff type measures to have checks and balances.”

Following its suspension in July this year, in November there was soft resumption of the Doha Round of negotiations. Technical discussions are taking place in Geneva. However, it is not yet clear when the trade talks will be taken forward to the political level.

South Asian countries should bridge their differences on WTO issues: CUTS
December 14, 2006

In July 2006, the Director-General of WTO after consulting the WTO members suspended the Doha Round of negotiations as an interim measure to allow for a period of “time-out”. Negotiations crammed upon agriculture that represents merely eight percent of total world trade, as food production always remained a very sensitive sector for both rich and poor countries. Furthermore, the current Doha Round being development round and since more than 70 percent of the world poor live in rural areas, there is no way the Doha Development Agenda can continue if the existing trade in agriculture is biased in favour of rich countries and issues relating to agricultural subsidies in the rich world are not addressed for the benefits of poor countries’ farmers. Thus concluding this Round is understandably difficult.

In such a situation, it is pertinent for the South Asian countries to identify their commonalities and differences regarding the negotiations so as to take common positions in future. Until now, negotiating positions of various countries of the region are more common on certain issues than conflicting. For example, on agriculture, positions are more or less common with regard to “special products” and “special safeguard mechanisms” as these economies are undergoing similar structural changes. Given this it is possible for South Asian countries to agree on other areas like for securing better market access for their agricultural products, for minimising distortions in the form of subsidies in rich-country markets, and for articulating common needs under the Special and Differential Treatment provisions.

Besides agriculture, given the abundant labour force and a strong comparative advantage in exports of such force to other countries, South Asia can also have a common position on Temporary Movement of Natural Persons under Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). A common position on issues of technology transfer, technical assistance and implementation aspects could also be accomplished. However, on issues such as intellectual property right (IPRs), India’s position is somewhat different from other countries of the region, in particular the LDCs. Thus, there do exist different positions on a few negotiating issues that need to be bonded.

In order to advocate for taking forward common positions on WTO issues by South Asian countries, CUTS Centre for International Trade Economics & Environment (CUTS CITEE) is currently implementing the phase-II of a project entitled, “WTO Doha Round & South Asia: Linking Civil Society with Trade Negotiations”. One of the objectives of this project is to generate negotiating inputs and assist the South Asian trade negotiators and policy makers while taking into account the positions of civil society (including NGOs, business bodies, trade unions, women groups, particularly those working on gender and trade linkages) for the successful completion of the Doha Round. The project is implemented in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is supported by Oxfam Novib, The Netherlands.

After a lull since July this year, WTO members are considering “soft resumption” of the Doha Round of negotiations. Talks among trade negotiators have resumed in Geneva but it’s anybody guess on when and how they will be taken to the political level.

Huge Cost of Suspension of Doha Talks: CUTS
December 06, 2006

With the current stalemate in Doha Round of trade talks, India should make all efforts to revive and concludes Doha Round of negotiations, as overall the country will gain much from multilateral liberalization, says CUTS International.

CUTS International, a leading research and advocacy group working inter alia on international trade issues has prepared a paper titled “Suspension of Doha talks: Cost Implications for India”. It has been circulated to various stakeholders all over the world having interest in trade.

In this paper CUTS expressed its views that cost of suspension may have various repercussions through economic loss, negative impact on geo-politics, setback to economic reforms and increase in trade disputes. With multilateral negotiations under suspension, countries are increasingly entering into preferential trading arrangements, which are not a substitute to multilateral liberalisation. Thus it is important to revive the Doha talks. This issue of revival of Doha talks is gaining ground and needs immediate actions on the part of WTO members.

In this paper CUTS also expressed that since the launch of the Doha Round in 2001, exports from India have grown at a rate of more than 20% per annum. However, it has been feared that with the suspension of Doha Round of talks India may not be able to increase its exports the way it should have especially in the farm sector despite taking positive steps domestically.

The high growth was experienced in spite of the fact that new round did not result in significant trade liberalisation at the multilateral level. However, our share in world trade has increased only by miniscule 0.1% during the last five years. Contrary to this, China has been able to increase its share in world trade from 4.3% in 2001 to 6.6% in 2004, says CUTS International