Geneva, Dec 27, With the failure to draw any conclusion on Doha Development Round in the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation held in Geneva this month, many doubts have been raised as to whether the concept of multilateral trading system would be materialized.
As long as the Doha Development Agenda remains inconclusive, the hope of LDCs to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would be in limbo.
Even Pascal Lamy Director General of World Trade Organisation (WTO) admitted that "the multilateral trading system is at a crossroads." He hinted that if the MC8 fails to derive any ‘way out’ for the Doha Development Round, further progress in multilateral trading system would be in trouble.
Many LDCs during the Ministerial Conference (MC8) echoed their voice for robust international support measures to address their complex development challenges. But at the end of the three day conference, no concrete result was derived.
WTO Director General Lamy while talking to journalists said ‘plurilateralism’ among the member nations could jeopardize the future of multilateral mechanism which in the can dampen the sprit of the WTO. However, he said that the 8th Ministerial Conference (MC8) has radiated some hopes to promote multilateralism.
Talking about the future of the DDA, he said "we must hammer out solutions to address the issues". The success of DDA depends much on how members show their interests to push forward the issues relating to multi-lateral agreement. Differences in opinion among the LDCs would trigger isolationism.
He urged WTO members to strike a common consensus for the success of the agenda. If we put the issues aside, that will affect the economy of every single nation.
Chairman of the WTO Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga, termed the MC8 a success, but there is a need of common efforts.
However, experts, government representatives gathered in Geneva termed the conference not as a ‘failure’, but ‘inconclusive’. If the DDA continues to linger, the target of least Developed Countries (LDCs) to meet Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 would be a far cry.
What happens if the multilateral trading system withers away? Experts say the gap between rich and poor would further widen. But the concern raised by some of the LDCs in the WTO Ministerial Conference cannot be ignored. They put forth
their views that ‘even within the multilateral trading system, there should be a mechanism of promoting LDCs product in the developed countries’ market. No LDCs can compete with the product of developed nations. Besides, the issues raised by LDCs should be given due importance, they emphasised.
It is to be noted that the least developed countries (LDCs) have declared that they are unlikely to meet ‘many’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 because of growing resource gaps.
The LDCs announced this at the Fifth High-Level Dialogue on the theme ‘the Monterrey Consensus and Doha Declaration on Financing for Development: Status of implementation and tasks Ahead" that was held in New York early this month.
The LDCs pinned much hope on MC8 saying that it would reach a first step Doha Round Outcome.
LDCs had stated that if the Doha Round remains inconclusive, it is imperative that the provisions of the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration concerning Duty Free and Quota Free (DFQF) provisions, particularly through necessary waver to accelerating LDC services exports, preferential and more favorable treatment to services and service-suppliers and the elimination of trade distorting support measure for cotton must be implemented as early harvest.
The World Economic Outlook recently published by the IMF characterised the world economy in terms of ‘sluggish growth and rising risks’
Failure of the round could lead to fragmentation of the global trading system and a weakening of the WTO and multilateralism. The continuation of such an impasse is, therefore not at the interests of the international community as a whole and the LDCs in particular.
As one of the members of the LDCs, Minister for Commerce and Supplies Lekh Raj Bhatta had also highlighted Nepal’s concern about the much ‘prolonged impasse in the Doha Development Round.
He had asserted that the leading nations should work through a multilateral process for a balanced, ambitious and specific outcome with clarity and precision on its development contents.
The concern showed by other LDCs also prove that Russia’s entry into the WTO would spur the multilateral trading system.
Economists here say that the failure to draw any conclusion on DDA would pose a dire effect on the LDCs, including Nepal.
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