Doha progress only with new market access: US

The World Trade Organization’s seventh ministerial meeting is transformed into what a trade official of an industrialised country described as the “substance-free zone” due to intransigent positions adopted by the US.

US Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Ron Kirk made it clear that without additional new market access from emerging countries like China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Argentina, among others, the Doha trade negotiations were unlikely to make progress.

“The US has been clear that we will need to achieve meaningful opening of market that results in significant new trade flows, particularly in the world’s fastest-growing economies —China, India, Brazil, and South Africa,” Ambassador Kirk said.

In sharp rebuttal, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Business Standard: “Developing countries made the biggest contribution in the Doha Round,” arguing it was unreasonable to demand additional market access from them.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma held a bilateral meeting with the USTR today and it is not clear what transpired during the meeting.

Though there is growing chorus of support for an early ministerial meeting next year to assess and finalise the steps to conclude the stalled Doha trade negotiations next year, the USTR is not open to such demands.

Consequently, there is no progress on the Doha trade negotiations, which are almost paralysed and, in turn, have reduced WTO to irrelevance,” said a trade official.

Meanwhile, India, Brazil and South Africa yesterday decided to pool their energies for adopting “common positions” on all issues pertaining to WTO and World Intellectual Properties Organization.

Meanwhile, during a breakfast meeting, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma concurred with his Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim and South African Trade Minister Rob Davies that common positions on vital WTO and WIPO-related issues had become imperative because of the common concerns among the three major emerging countries on trade and intellectual property issues, sources said.

Of late, Brazil and India are considering taking the European Union to WTO over the Dutch confiscation of Indian generic drugs on high seas. These drugs shipped for the Brazilian market were seized on the ground that they allegedly violated intellectual property rules.

At WIPO, Brazil, India and South Africa are resisting a concerted move from a group of industrialised countries to force their agenda on patents.

On Monday, India reached an understanding with the MERCOSUR (South American regional trade agreement, of which Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay are members) and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) during the first Trilateral Ministerial Meeting. The three sides will carry out technical work at the official level to “explore possible tracks for the envisaged India-MERCOSUR-SACU Trilateral Trade Arrangement meeting “to build complementarities.”