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Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Feb21/10) Geneva, 11 Feb (D. Ravi Kanth) – The chair of the Doha trade and development negotiations, Ambassador Kadra Ahmed Hassan from Djibouti, has kick-started work on the ten unresolved issues raised by the Group of 90 developing and least-developed countries (G90) on the “efficient and effective implementation” of existing special and differential treatment (S&DT) provisions in the WTO agreements, negotiators told the SUNS. However, the developed countries led by the United States, the European Union, and Australia among others opposed discussions on the ten issues on differing grounds, negotiators said. At an informal open-ended virtual meeting of the negotiating group on trade and development on 8 February, the chair focused the discussion on exploring “how to move forward on ten proposals submitted by the G-90.” The chair intends to conclude the discussions on the ten proposals so as to enable trade ministers to reach a decision at the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference (MC12) which is likely to be held in Geneva towards the end of the year, said negotiators, who preferred not to be identified. In an email sent to members on 29 January, Ambassador Hassan said that she will convene five informal meetings of the Doha trade and development negotiating group in order to take up two issues at each meeting. She informed members that she will take up two issues – “Proposal 8 concerning the Enabling Clause and Proposal 10 concerning accessions”- at the scheduled meeting on 8 February. In order to have “a constructive and focused meeting,” the chair said that she would like the discussion on each proposal to be guided by the following two questions: 1. On which elements of the proposal might convergence be found? 2. Where do the difficulties lie in the proposal and why, and how could these be overcome? Ambassador Hassan said that it is her hope that “such a discussion will provide greater clarity to our work in the Special Session, and will allow a better appreciation of where the possible outcomes might lie.” The chair’s approach has forced the developed countries – the United States, the European Union, Japan and Australia among others – to enter into serious discussions on these ten issues, which they have otherwise obdurately opposed and refused to discuss, said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. The ten unresolved issues raised by the G-90 group with support from India and several other developing countries were pending from the WTO’s tenth ministerial conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2015. The issues pertain to: (1) Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs); (2) Article XVIII of the GATT 1994 dealing with safeguard issues, particularly section A and C; (3) GATT Article XVIII, section B, dealing with balance of payments; (4) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS); (5) Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT); (6) Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM); (7) Agreement on Customs Valuation and decision on minimum values; (8) the 1979 decision on differential and more favorable treatment, reciprocity and fuller participation of developing countries, or what is referred to as the Enabling Clause; (9) Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement dealing with transfer of technology; and (10) accession. The ten issues were part of the implementation issues that developing countries, led by India’s former trade envoy Ambassador S Narayanan, had raised at the fourth WTO ministerial conference in Doha in 2001. The original long list of issues was reduced to ten issues because of continued opposition from the developed countries. For the past four years, the G-90 has repeatedly argued that the ten “S&DT proposals are designed to ensure existing S&DT provisions and rights are efficiently and effectively implemented.” The ten issues, according to the G-90’s consolidated statement issued on 9 February, are “a pressing need to enable the social and economic transformation required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to ensure that no one is left behind.” It argued that “the SDGs include several Goals and Targets related to international trade and the WTO, often focusing on the solution to challenges faced by LDCs and developing countries in this regard.” “These include, for example, Targets under SDGs 1, 2, 8, 10, 16 and 17,” and “Target 10.a specifically mandates, “Implement the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, in accordance with World Trade Organization agreements”,” the G-90 argued. Citing the findings in a UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report of 2019, the G-90 said the worsening prospects of the global economy have only multiplied the challenges being faced by developing countries and LDCs. “With trade tensions, a global slowdown and increasing financial markets volatility and recession, an immediate worry for many developing countries is that any sharp loss of confidence in their own currency coming after a rapid increase in external debt could expose them to much deeper deflationary pressures, as has already occurred in Argentina and Turkey,” it argued. The Sustainable Development Goals Report of 2019 has emphasized that “the other defining issue of our time is increasing inequality among and within countries. Poverty, hunger and disease continue to be concentrated in the poorest and most vulnerable groups of people and countries,” the G-90 stated. Against this backdrop, the G-90 said that the ten proposals “should be viewed in this context” as “they aim to provide concrete means to contribute to the achievement of SDGs through socio-economic, industrial and structural transformation of LDCs and developing countries by operationalizing the existing S&DT provisions in the WTO Agreements.” “Hence, they are in accordance with both the WTO Doha Mandate as well as the SDG targets,” the G-90 asserted. It argued that the proposals “address specific challenges faced by LDCs and developing countries in the areas of industrialization and structural transformation (e.g. proposals related to TRIMs Agreement, GATT Article XVIII A and C, TRIPS Agreement, etc.), promoting their exports including through capacity building (e.g. proposals related to Enabling Clause, TBT Agreement, SPS Agreement, SCM Agreement, etc.), and meaningful integration of LDCs and developing countries in the multilateral trading system (e.g. proposals related to accession).” “At the heart of these proposals are the policy and capacity constraints of LDCs and developing countries that prevent them from taking advantage of the opportunities of international trade and the multilateral trading system to enhance their levels of development,” the G-90 said. The proposals by no means seek “blanket, permanent, unconditional carve outs,” the G-90 clarified. It argued that the ten proposals “aim to seek the effective implementation of existing S&DT provisions, including through the provision of assured technical assistance and capacity building, policy space, commercially meaningful export opportunities, and implementation timelines.” Further, the proposals “seek to provide stability, predictability and transparency in the implementation of existing S&DT provisions, and thus strengthen the key hallmarks of the multilateral trading system,” the G-90 said. Moreover, these proposals are “the result of careful and detailed deliberations among G-90 members, taking into account the needs of members at different levels of development.” The largest group of developing and least-developed countries at the WTO said that the time has come to act “immediately towards ensuring WTO rules effectively enable developing countries and least developed countries to pursue policies of industrialization, structural transformation and diversification of their economies.” TWO PROPOSALS DISCUSSED AT THE MEETING In the discussion on the two proposals – the Enabling Clause and accessions, the G-90 elaborated its specific concerns, said a negotiator, who asked not to be quoted. On the Enabling Clause, the G-90 said “in formulating schemes under paragraphs 2(a) and (d) of the Enabling Clause as well as other non-reciprocal preference schemes, developed-country Members shall take into account the needs of developing and least-developed country Members by consulting with them, with a view to ensuring that their products of export interest are accorded meaningful market access.” According to the decision on the Enabling Clause reached during the Tokyo Round of trade negotiations in 1979, paragraphs 2(a) and 2(d) refer respectively to “preferential tariff treatment accorded by developed contracting parties to products originating in developing countries in accordance with the Generalized System of Preferences,” and “special treatment on the least developed among the developing countries in the context of any general or specific measures in favour of developing countries.” The G-90 urged “the (developed-country) Members” to consult with them with a view to ensuring that their products of export interest are accorded meaningful market access. The G-90 said “the Committee on Trade and Development will annually review the progress made in this regard and report to the General Council.” On accession, as stated in the tenth proposal, the G-90 argued that “the WTO Agreement recognizes the need for a positive effort to ensure developing countries, especially the least-developed countries, secure a share in the growth of international trade that is commensurate with their level of economic development.” Citing the hurdles and difficulties faced by the least-developed countries, who are often subjected to burdensome and “extortionist” demands, the G-90 said “the limited human, institutional, financial and administrative capacity of LDCs makes LDCs’ accession more challenging.” Consistent with the SDGs, the G-90 said that “LDCs (least-developed countries) need a special & differential treatment in their accession process.” Quoting the 2002 LDCs Accession Guideline and the 2012 General Council Decision, the G-90 said “while the LDCs are expected to offer reasonable concessions that are commensurate with their individual development, financial and trade levels, Members shall exercise a full restraint in seeking concessions and commitments from acceding LDCs.” Therefore, the developed countries must “restrain from seeking concessions and commitments beyond the individual level of development and regulatory capacity of the acceding LDC, and to restrain the lengthy accession process and facilitate a speedy and smooth integration of LDCs into the multilateral trading system, instrumentalize the Guideline as a minimum requirement to “fast-track” accession procedure of LDCs,” the G-90 argued. At the meeting, Vanuatu, one of the newly acceded members, narrated the specific commitments it was forced to undertake in joining the WTO, said a negotiator, who asked not to be quoted. Several other LDCs also shared their assessment of the burdensome commitments that they undertook in joining the WTO, the negotiator said. DEVELOPED COUNTRIES REMAIN SILENT AT MEETING The developed countries, which have fiercely opposed the G-90’s ten proposals, remained silent during the discussion at the meeting on these two issues, the negotiator said. In the face of the non-interventions by the major developed countries, the chair said that if there are no objections then she will recommend that these two issues be approved at the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference, which is likely to be held in Geneva at the end of this year, the negotiator said. Immediately, the United States, the European Union, and Australia raised their flags at the meeting, saying that they had never agreed to these proposals, the negotiator said. The US, which had refused to enter into any discussions on the G-90 proposals in the past, apparently expressed dismay as to why these issues are being discussed, said another negotiator. The EU said that the specific questions raised on the ten issues have not been answered, while Australia is understood to have opposed the G-90 proposals, the negotiator said. Nevertheless, the developed countries have been forced to enter into discussion on “our ten proposals”, the negotiator said. A decision on these proposals is imperative at MC12, otherwise, the WTO will lose its “credibility” and will be seen as a multilateral trade body working only for the interests of the developed countries and not the developing and least-developed countries, the negotiator said.
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