Weak strategy by WTO members worries India

India today expressed sharp concern over the absence of “problem-solving approach by all members” in Doha trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), saying “continuous deferment of real engagement” will undermine the chances of completing the long-delayed trade negotiations by next year.

In a hard-hitting statement delivered at the WTO’s General Council, India’s trade envoy Ambassador Ujal Singh Bhatia said New Delhi was “disappointed that the steady stream of political signals seeking an early conclusion of the Doha Round” have not been properly translated into an intensive phase of multilateral negotiations in Geneva.

Recently, the G-8 leaders along with the G-5 members — China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico — had called for concluding the Doha Round in 2010. New Delhi will host a G-20 ministerial meeting on September 3 and 4 to provide a direction to the world leaders when they meet in Pittsburgh, US.

But work in the negotiating bodies such as Doha agriculture and market-opening for industrial goods in Geneva has practically come to a grinding halt. Surprisingly, there is no road map to accelerate work at the multilateral level, several trade envoys have told Business Standard.

Casting serious doubts on a weak strategy being suggested by the chairs of Doha agriculture and market opening for industrial goods, Ambassador Bhatia cautioned that without “real engagement” and a genuine problem-solving approach by all members, the Doha Round is unlikely to be completed by next year.

The Doha Development Agenda negotiations were launched in 2001 to impart a development dimension to global trade. They were to be concluded by January 1, 2005, in a sequential order. For example, members would first conclude an agreement on developmental issues to be followed by modalities in agriculture and industrial goods and finally all the remaining issues.

Simultaneously, the US has pressed key emerging countries — China, India, Brazil and South Africa — to enter into bilateral consultations to know how these countries will use their flexibilities in agriculture and industrial goods as well as how they would address Washington’s demands in these two areas.

But India, China, Brazil and South Africa have said they will only clarify on transparency-related aspects but not on how they will use their flexibilities.