WTO meeting much ado about nothing?

THE recent World Trade Organisation (WTO) Hong Kong ministerial meeting was a lost opportunity which did not manage to advance the poor countries’ cause on the international trade arena, but as always richer countries managed to put their interests before those of developing nations.

These were some of the sentiments expressed by two of the three main speakers who spoke on the aftermath of the WTO meeting and the implications of its outcome for Namibia and other sub-Saharan African countries. Views from the one-day public dialogue held in Windhoek yesterday were that nothing much had been done to improve the situation for developing or poorer countries on the international trade stage.The sixth WTO Ministerial Conference was held in Hong Kong from December 13 to 18.The meeting was for members to settle a range of issues which would shape the final agreement of the Doha Development Agenda, which members hope to complete by the end of this year.Launched at the fourth conference in November 2001, the Doha Development Agenda includes negotiations on a range of subjects and issues related to the implementation of agreements arising from previous negotiations.Negotiations are on agriculture and non-agricultural market access, and tariffs on thousands of products and on farm subsidies.Also on the agenda were preparations for the final stages of negotiations in services, various WTO rules and a number of development issues.Giving an analysis of the results of the December WTO meeting, the Executive Director: Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD) South Africa, Dr Garth le Pere, said WTO meetings were often complex as strategies often changed randomly as fixed by the rich developed countries like the United States and its allies.Le Pere said developing countries faced enormous challenges on how they could participate in free trade, adding that the major players – the developed nations – remained the same and continued to play the same game, as it is “all an elaborate power play”.African countries, he said, had gone to Hong Kong with some demands which included that all developed countries should provide non-reciprocity-bound duty-free and quota-free market access status to all least developed countries (LDCs), and that WTO agreements be reviewed and revived from a development perspective.However, there was hardly any movement in the status quo.Le Pere said the ambition by the members to conclude the Doha agenda by end of this year was “really misplaced”.The South African Programme Director for Oxfam Great Britain, Shehnilla Mohamed, said at the sixth WTO ministerial meeting developing countries had been robbed as the offer of duty-free, quota-free access to the LDCs contained enough loopholes to rob the agreement of almost all value.Oxfam, an international humanitarian, development and campaigning organisation well known for its ‘Make Trade Fair’ campaign, made sure its protest presence was felt at the meeting in Hong Kong.Mohamed said few delegates believed that anything would be achieved by April 30, as they had only managed to move a little forward after 16 months of hard bargaining for the Hong Kong meeting.She said: “The Doha Round is in danger of grinding to a standstill.Rich countries have both a moral duty and long-term self-interest in seeing a world free from extreme poverty and hunger.Not only have they failed to deliver on their Doha promises, there are worrying signs that the round has lost its way and reverted to a traditional ‘might is right’ negotiation in which the final outcome could do more harm than good for development.”Mesag Mulunga of the Ministry of Trade and Industry talked about the Namibian perspective of the WTO Hong Kong meeting.The informative and thought-provoking discussion, which drew various stakeholders and interested parties, was organised by the Namibia Agricultural Trade Forum and the Namibia Manufacturers Association in conjunction with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Namibia.Views from the one-day public dialogue held in Windhoek yesterday were that nothing much had been done to improve the situation for developing or poorer countries on the international trade stage.The sixth WTO Ministerial Conference was held in Hong Kong from December 13 to 18.The meeting was for members to settle a range of issues which would shape the final agreement of the Doha Development Agenda, which members hope to complete by the end of this year.Launched at the fourth conference in November 2001, the Doha Development Agenda includes negotiations on a range of subjects and issues related to the implementation of agreements arising from previous negotiations.Negotiations are on agriculture and non-agricultural market access, and tariffs on thousands of products and on farm subsidies.Also on the agenda were preparations for the final stages of negotiations in services, various WTO rules and a number of development issues.Giving an analysis of the results of the December WTO meeting, the Executive Director: Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD) South Africa, Dr Garth le Pere, said WTO meetings were often complex as strategies often changed randomly as fixed by the rich developed countries like the United States and its allies.Le Pere said developing countries faced enormous challenges on how they could participate in free trade, adding that the major players – the developed nations – remained the same and continued to play the same game, as it is “all an elaborate power play”.African countries, he said, had gone to Hong Kong with some demands which included that all developed countries should provide non-reciprocity-bound duty-free and quota-free market access status to all least developed countries (LDCs), and that WTO agreements be reviewed and revived from a development perspective. However, there was hardly any movement in the status quo.Le Pere said the ambition by the members to conclude the Doha agenda by end of this year was “really misplaced”.The South African Programme Director for Oxfam Great Britain, Shehnilla Mohamed, said at the sixth WTO ministerial meeting developing countries had been robbed as the offer of duty-free, quota-free access to the LDCs contained enough loopholes to rob the agreement of almost all value.Oxfam, an international humanitarian, development and campaigning organisation well known for its ‘Make Trade Fair’ campaign, made sure its protest presence was felt at the meeting in Hong Kong.Mohamed said few delegates believed that anything would be achieved by April 30, as they had only managed to move a little forward after 16 months of hard bargaining for the Hong Kong meeting.She said: “The Doha Round is in danger of grinding to a standstill.Rich countries have both a moral duty and long-term self-interest in seeing a world free from extreme poverty and hunger.Not only have they failed to deliver on their Doha promises, there are worrying signs that the round has lost its way and reverted to a traditional ‘might is right’ negotiation in which the final outcome could do more harm than good for development.”Mesag Mulunga of the Ministry of Trade and Industry talked about the Namibian perspective of the WTO Hong Kong meeting. The informative and thought-provoking discussion, which drew various stakeholders and interested parties, was organised by the Namibia Agricultural Trade Forum and the Namibia Manufacturers Association in conjunction with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Namibia.