SUNS #4623 Thursday 9 March 2000

south-north development monitor SUNS [Email Edition]

contents

Trade: WTO system may not be sustainable without S & D (Chakravarthi Raghavan, Geneva)

Development: Developing world must exploit information explosion (IPS, Kuala Lumpur)

Morocco: Accord with EU worries business community (IPS, Rabat)

Trinidad & Tobago: Clinging to controversial investment project (IPS, Port of Spain)

Europe: Mediterranean regional cooperation stressed (IPS, Lisbon)

Brazil: Women soon to outnumber men in research (IPS, Rio de Janeiro)

TRADE: WTO SYSTEM MAY NOT BE SUSTAINABLE WITHOUT S & D

Geneva, 8 Mar (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The World Trade Organization and its multilateral trading system, both in terms of the obligations in existing agreements like Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and new areas sought to be brought under its scope, may not be sustainable if an 'one-size-fit-all' principle is applied to the large number of its members.

In presenting this view at a WTO seminar on Special and Differential Treatment, Prof. C. Stevens of the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex, said that no country in its domestic economic policy applied the same level of obligations on all its public, but modulated them in terms of economic situations of people or the backwardness of a region of the country.

It did not make economic sense to apply a one-size-fit-all in terms of the multilateral trading system, and more so in new areas, Steven said. However, he said, the classification of the countries and the varying levels of obligations to be applied was very complex and gave rise to many problems. But it was time to begin to think of them, he added. In other presentations and interventions, India's Amb. S. Narayanan said that the various S&D provisions in existing agreements had not provided the benefits, and it was necessary to operationalism them.