Reviving Doha

With the leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum pledging to take the lead in the revival of the stalled global trade talks and similar voices emanating from other quarters, the conditions seem to be turning conducive for ending the deadlock. This group alone accounts for nearly half the global trade and around 60 per cent of the world's economic activity. The joint declaration issued after the APEC meeting in Vietnam avers that its member countries will move beyond their current positions in key areas. It also spells out that this commitment entails deeper cuts in trade-distorting agricultural support; offering greater market access in agriculture; making real cuts in industrial tariffs; and establishing new openings in services. No doubt, some key players in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) parleys on the Doha development round, notably the European Union, Brazil and India, are not members of the APEC, but all of them have separately expressed readiness to go back to the negotiation table. The US, on its part, has been losing no opportunity to express its willingness to relent on farm subsidies though it also wants a similar move by the EU, which it considers to be the world's largest subsidiser of agriculture. Of course, both the US and the EU are for greater opening up of the markets for agricultural as well industrial goods and services.

The current talks, which began in 2001, had broken down in July last on differences over farm subsidies and tariffs, with the developing countries led by India and Brazil taking a firm stand on subsidy cuts by the US and the EU. However, a lot seems to have changed since then, with these trading giants being agreeable now to reconsider their positions. What is more significant is that the US administration is doing so even after the victory of the Democrats in the recent US mid-term polls. Indeed, the US seems more keen now than ever before for a viable multilateral trade arrangement as its bilateral free-trade discussions with several countries are stuck. Besides, the US is also turning wary of the speed with which China is going ahead in entering into free-trade accords, especially with dynamic Asian economies like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and further trade cooperation with India. Besides, the Bush administration also realises that its authority to seal a trade deal without clause-by-clause scrutiny by the legislators is expiring in July next and the chances of its renewal are remote in view of the poll reverses.

Indeed, what is significant from the developing countries' view-point is that the Doha mandate is as much for development as for fair and free trade, which can even be taken care of by the WTO. The livelihood concerns of the resource-poor people of the developing nations can, therefore, be addressed better through the framework of the Doha agenda than that of the WTO. The goal of development will get a severe jolt if the Doha agenda is given the final burial.