Doha agenda may still be salvaged: WTO

Backroom discussions show forward movement on agriculture subsidies.

NEW DELHI: There seems to be some hope for the ill-fated Doha Development Agenda of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). A ministerial meeting scheduled for June 29 may achieve what the Hong Kong Ministerial in December, 2005, could not.

"There is a reasonably good possibility of getting an agreement, " Harsha V Singh (pictured), deputy director-general of the WTO, told DNA in an interview. "The landing zone appears to be reasonably clear, which gives comfort to all parties concerned," Singh said.

Though Singh and another WTO official were here to attend some seminars, they were also believed to be holding informal consultations with Indian negotiators.

To recap, the Hong Kong ministerial could not reach a consensus on putting specific numbers to commitments for reducing tariffs and cutting various agricultural subsidies. The ministerial set April 30 as the deadline for arriving at these full modalities but even that deadline could not be met. With the prospects of a failure of the Doha Development Round staring at it in the face, the WTO stepped up efforts to achieve a consensus on all problematic issues.

Singh rubbished apprehensions that there would be an attempt to arm-twist countries into arriving at a consensus through a draft prepared by Pascal Lamy - on the lines of the Dunkel draft preceding the formation of the WTO - on which members would be asked to debate. "The question of a Lamy draft doesn’t arise. The chair’s text will depend on what the members say," he emphasised.

The text, Singh assured, would arise from discussions with member countries. The text would be ready by June 19, following which  countries would be given time to assess and work on it.

The ministerial, then, would be able to focus on the main areas of differences and the meeting will finally settle modalities, he said.

Though agriculture was the main stumbling block, the chairman of the agriculture negotiating group, Singh noted, had set in motion a consultative process in which he would take the position of countries on various issues and then point out the implications. "Now we are more than halfway down that process," he assured.

Once the modalities issue is sorted out, Singh said, the various linkages between and within different areas of negotiations - agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and services - also get sorted out and countries can get a clearer picture of what they will get as a package.

The services negotiations, Singh said, were proceeding extremely well with overwhelming participation by members. Against the expectation of 10-12 plurilateral requests, the WTO got 22.

While agreeing that India’s defensive posture on agriculture negotiations was correct - given concerns about food security and livelihood issues - Singh pointed out that market openings or reductions in subsidies by other countries will also help Indian agricultural exports. India, he observed, is actually a net exporter in agriculture.