Doha negotiators demand progress

Chairs of Doha negotiating bodies on Tuesday cautioned World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy not to try and force a ministerial meeting in April without concrete progress in important areas of negotiations, trade diplomats said.

Delivering an emphatic message to Lamy, who is also the chairman of the trade negotiations committee that is currently overseeing the Doha talks, the chairs said it is important to let the multilateral process continue as long as it takes to find the convergence on all difficult issues.

Over the last two months, the European Union and the WTO chief have been working overtime to convene a ministerial meeting for concluding the negotiating modalities or benchmarks that would suggest the level of commitments members will have to take in reducing the agricultural subsidies and (import) tariffs as well as industrial tariffs.

The director general's office has already alerted the WTO officials not to go on leave during April, sources said, adding that Lamy wants to hold "horizontal" meetings soon among senior officials of select member countries.

But many countries, including India, want the ongoing multilateral talks to continue without any hindrance till there is a clear picture on the likely commitments in other areas such as rules to improve anti-dumping and subsidy provisions, and trade in services.

They have warned that they cannot join the horizontal process for discussing the trade-offs between agriculture and industrial products without knowing what is going to be the level of comfort they would secure in areas of their interest, trade diplomats said.

"India wants a revised text on Doha rules and a clearer assessment on services negotiations, especially in Mode 1 relating to cross-border services and Mode 4 concerning movement of short-term services providers," Indian Ambassador Ujal Singh Bhatia told Business Standard.

But some powerful members like the United States are privately insisting that they do not want to see a revised text on rules on the ground that it would complicate the negotiations to finalise modalities in agriculture and NAMA, trade diplomats said.

However, several other members under the leadership of Japan have opposed the draft text on Doha rules on the ground that it would legalize the zeroing methodology that helps the authorities to inflate the anti-dumping margins.

In a statement circulated on Tuesday, members of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) have demanded a revised text on rules that would incorporate proposals to prohibit zeroing methodology.

But the WTO chief is somewhat indifferent to the suggestions that there should be a revised text on Rules because of the fear that it would not be helpful to the US, said a trade diplomat.

Faced with demands to widen the scope of the horizontal meetings at the level of senior officials, Lamy is now forced to convene a meeting with select trade envoys on Thursday to discuss what issues need to be included in the horizontal meetings, the diplomat said.

In short, many countries want to see what is going to happen in both Doha Rules as well as services before committing on the so-called modalities in agriculture and NAMA.

It is only the Untied States wants continuation of zeroing methodology as reflected in the draft text. Despite overwhelming opposition to the continuation of zeroing methodology, the US appears pretty determined to ensure that it stays without any change, trade diplomats said.