The World Trade Organisation's (WTO) member states have missed yet another deadline in the seemingly jinxed Doha round of negotiations. | The officials of some 146 countries, who confabulated at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, have failed to re-launch the stalled talks. |
| This is not surprising, considering the way the Cancun ministerial meet collapsed, bringing all activities in connection with these talks to an abrupt end. |
| The latest setback has marred what little hope there was of meeting the target of wrapping up this round by the end of 2004. |
| However, the situation is not irretrievable. For, none of the parties want the efforts to revive the Doha round to be given up as yet. |
| On the contrary, all of them without exception have expressed their willingness to cooperate in this bid. |
| Equally encouraging is the indication, however meagre, of a more accommodative and flexible stand by the developed block, by the diverse, yet till now firmly-knitted, group of around 50 developing countries, by the independently floating African and other small countries and by the Cairns group. |
| This is borne out by the subtle modification in the stand of the G-50, including India and China, on the Singapore issues (investment, competition policy, government procurement and trade facilitation). |
| While earlier any mention of the Singapore issues was a red rag, now they have agreed that the preliminary work on trade facilitation can continue. |
| On the other hand, the US and EU negotiators, too, have in a way expressed their willingness to reconsider their stand on some issues. |
| And Carlos Perez del Castillo, this year's chairman of the general council, has begun putting pressure on the developed countries to commit themselves to an end-date for phasing out agricultural export subsidies. |
| Should that happen, it would provide the developing countries a pretext to begin talking on issues of interest to the developed world, including industrial tariffs. |
| Yet another positive outcome of the Geneva meet was the approval of the proposal for all the Doha round negotiating groups, currently in suspension, to resume work from early 2004. |
| These groups include the ones dealing with issues concerning services and special and differential treatment for the poor countries. |
| In the larger context, these are minor developments that cannot straightaway be viewed as precursors to the re-launch of a stalled process. |
| Already, the US presidential election campaign is gathering momentum and the European Union's enlargement issues will grip the attentions of the nations of this block. |
| From the Indian point of view, too, the approaching parliamentary elections will not be the most appropriate time for de-linking WTO issues from domestic electoral politics. |
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