Doha Round progress in sight

The ongoing stand-off at the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which has been on the table since late 2001, could see considerable movement in the coming months with member states likely to participate in “serious engagement”, WTO Deputy Director-General Harsh V Singh said here today.

Singh, who is also the senior-most Indian official at the Geneva-based body, said that he was hoping for more serious engagement from September. “There has been more energy in the past few months. There has been greater substantive engagement. Such significant talks were not talking place earlier,” he said on the sidelines of an event organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

According to him, majority of contentious issues have been settled, and 10-15 per cent of matters are yet to be resolved. These include disagreements over the special safeguard mechanisms in the agricultural sector, which was one of the main reasons for the Geneva negotiations of 2008 to fall through, as well as matters related to NAMA (non-agricultural market access), services and a few areas of the anti-dumping regulations. “But in each area, we have seen greater engagement,” Singh added.

Meanwhile, the formation of small focus groups within the WTO to “iron out the wrinkles” over contentious issues will add to the momentum once the organisation reopens after a recess in September, FICCI Assistant Secretary General Manab Majumdar explained. Negotiations have been aided after the Obama administration appointed a full-time ambassador to the WTO, Michael Punke, as well as chief US agricultural trade negotiator, Isi Siddiqui, earlier this year, Singh said. “We are hopeful that the US will engage in a more meaningful manner, and India has taken some initiative at the same time. Although a 2010-deadline was spoken of, it is more realistic to expect that the Doha Round should be concluded by 2011 with a balance outcome,” Majumdar added.