Drawing Up The Battleplans

The differences arise from a fundamental conflict: the developed world wants to substantially enlarge the domain of the WTO, by linking trade to almost every area of human activity, while the developing world wants to keep the WTO where it is and focus on the implementation of the Uruguay Round.

If one were to dissect the topics that would come up for discussion at Singapore, they would fall into one of these three categories: a review of how Uruguay Round decisions are being implemented; a follow-up of the negotiations that were set rolling, but not concluded, during the Uruguay Round; and a discussion on completely new areas to be brought under the WTO umbrella. These categories are in the increasing order of interest for the developed world, while they are in the decreasing order of interest for the developing world.

 

The game in Singapore, therefore, will be about how much time is spent discussing on what. To understand how the game will unfold, it is necessary to go down this list of categories one by one.

There's a long list of grievances, which the developing countries carry with them, from agriculture to multi-fibre agreement (MFA). The liberalisation of trade in agriculture and textiles was the great big carrot held out before the developing world, as they signed the Uruguay Round agreements. But the carrots are still beyond their reach.

The backloading clause has ensured that most developing countries do not gain much in the first few years of the phase out of MFA. In fact, India will not gain from the European Union's proposal on the second phase of textile liberalisation currently under consideration of EU's council of ministers. She has not gained from the first two phase out stages of the US either. Says a textile ministry source :This is clearly a pending issue India must take up.

In agriculture, the Marrakesh Final Act provides for the renegotiation of the agreement in the year 2000. Developed countries are opposed to any liberalisation in the area of agriculture and even a discussion on this at Singapore, while several developing countries stand to gain from this.

The abuse of anti-dumping and non-tariff barriers is another issue India and other developing countries will take up. At last count, the country's exports were facing over 25 anti dumping cases, 11 from the EU alone. From azodyes to inflammable skirts, India has listed over 30-odd non-tariff barriers faced by the country, in a study undertaken by the commerce ministry.

However, the developed countries will be no sitting duck in this area