Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) director general, said the Doha Round had entered a critical phase and an agreement would contribute to stability in a world gripped by the nuclear crisis in Japan and instability in the Middle East.
“In the current turbulent times, the WTO must act as a catalyst for trust and global unity through the conclusion of the Doha Round,” he said, in an impassioned statement last week.
Conclusion of the Doha Round, Lamy thinks, will give a boost to the global economy at a time when the world was coming out of a recession.
The Doha Round, which has been dragging on since 2001, has missed several deadlines and many fear that this year could be the talks’ “last window of opportunity”.
Agricultural subsidies by the developed nations, particularly the United States, have riled the developing nations, further stalling the talks.
The Doha Round has been termed “the development round”, as it will give developing countries more access to the developed world’s markets.
Zimbabwe, like many developing countries, has been calling for the removal of agricultural subsidies in the US and EU, as they say these affect flow of food trade to these countries.
WTO members have agreed to remove subsidies in order for supply to meet demand and that would improve food security and trade across the globe.
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But experts fear that the Doha Round may have been overtaken by events and there was lack of goodwill from the developed nations.
The EU’s failure to address the Doha Round at its just ended summit, may add to such thinking.
The block, instead focused on the nuclear crisis in Japan and financial stability in the Euro zone ignoring the Doha Round, despite initially putting it up on the agenda.
Mauritius’ ambassador to the WTO, Shree Servansin said a “sombre mood” had gripped the talks, fearing that they would not be completed this year.
“It doesn’t look like we will conclude this year,” Servansin, who also coordinates the African, Caribbean and Pacific group at the WTO, said via a conference call last week. “Things are not looking good.”
The Doha negotiations, he said, were complex and had been hindered by a world economic crisis and failure to find buy in from countries such as the US.
Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, a Chinese trade expert, seemed to echo this sentiment claiming the Doha negotiations may have been overtaken by events.
“The Doha Round is yesterday’s solution to yesterday’s problems,” he said, adding that the European Union and the US had become major stumbling blocks to the finalisation of the negotiations.
Lee-Makiyama said the EU seemed to have developed fatigue towards the WTO since the bloc had signed a number of bilateral trade agreements with strategic countries in the wake of the collapse of the last negotiating round in Hong Kong in 2005.
The WTO, which has more than 155 members, is an intergovernmental body, whose mandate is to lower trade tariffs while at the same time promoting trade between countries.
