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Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Mar24/17) Geneva, 26 Mar (D. Ravi Kanth) — India has called for prioritizing discussions at the World Trade Organization on “cross-cutting, real-life trade issues which impact the developing countries disproportionately”, as “a sense of defeatism and decline in members’ interest in the working of this organization” appears imminent as it completes 30 years of its existence by end-December, said people familiar with the discussions. At the two-day WTO General Council meeting that concluded on 22 March, India floated a restricted unofficial room document (RD/GC/30), seen by the SUNS, on “30 Years of WTO: How Has Development Dimension Progressed?”, recounting various developments since the establishment of the WTO in 1995. The unofficial room document was intended for use only in the WTO meeting rooms. However, it appears to have gathered considerable support during the General Council discussions. It is commonplace knowledge that the progress of issues concerning development raised by the developing and least-developed countries seem to have been brushed aside during the last three decades, several former trade envoys said on a background basis. Following the controversial and allegedly asymmetrical Uruguay Round of trade negotiations that eventually led to the creation of the WTO in 1995, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations were launched in Doha, Qatar in December 2001. It coincided with the accession of China to the WTO. The DDA was projected as a “development round” to address the specific concerns of the developing countries in the global trading system. Members spent more than 20 years on the DDA negotiations, without any credible outcomes for the developing countries, which raised many issues across all the areas. “These issues are almost buried as WTO completes 30 years of its questionable existence,” said a former trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. SHARED GLOBAL PROSPERITY In its unofficial room document, India said, “the WTO will complete 30 years of its existence at the end of this calendar year,” creating “the hope and the ambition of bringing shared global prosperity through trade.” “Our forefathers who signed off on the Marrakesh Agreement, could not have been clearer than what they were, when in the very first paragraph of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, they mentioned the developmental objectives of this organization,” India said. It highlighted that very paragraph in the Marrakesh Agreement, which stated that “trade and economic endeavour should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand”, as well as underscored the “importance of expanding the production of and trade in goods and services”. “As this organization reaches a temporal milestone,” India said, “it may be a prudent and an opportune moment to reflect on how this organization has supported these lofty ideals and the aspirations of all its members.” It said that the 30th anniversary “affords us a stocktake of the objective stated in the second paragraph of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, which recognized the “need for positive efforts designed to ensure that developing countries, and especially the least developed among them, secure a share in the growth in international trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development”.” Despite good discussions on the development dimension in the last one year, there are few tangible outcomes, India argued. According to the unofficial room document, there have been discussions on development in various meetings and even at a retreat. “The discussions in Development Retreat in February 2023, which was well captured in DDG Zhang’s summary of this Retreat (briefly stated in para 1.13 in document JOB/GC/357), India’s paper JOB/COMTD/4 reflecting on the same Development Retreat, Africa Group papers on broad thrust on policy space for industrialisation in various bodies of the WTO, CTD Chair’s report on the Senior Officials’ Meet of October 2023 contained in the document JOB/GC/365, and India’s paper WT/GC/W/865, which explained the role CTD can play in these discussions, are some examples of this process,” said India. India sought sustained “discussions and debate on the issues of Development in the working of all regular bodies of this organization” in a focused and structured way. It presented the following initial ideas: (1) It is a “collective effort, where members bring in proposals and papers, which build upon the centrality of the development dimension.” (2) WTO bodies, which hold thematic sessions, should devote at least one session in 2024 to addressing developmental needs and concerns. (3) They should also devote at least one session to zooming in further to discuss the specific needs of LDCs, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. (4) WTO bodies, which do not hold thematic sessions, currently can begin doing so this year by holding a discussion on developmental concerns. (5) WTO bodies which are under-utilized – for example, the Working Group on Trade and Technology Transfer and Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance – should be reinvigorated, bringing in greater coherence with relevant intergovernmental organizations. (6) Cross-cutting, real-life trade issues, which impact the developing countries disproportionately like: * access to finance including trade finance, * access to technology, or bridging digital divide, * enhancing effective aid for trade that is effective, demand-driven, untied, and has recipient ownership, * flexibilities needed by the developing countries for industrialization, or food security, * issues holding back digital development such as competition, * manufacturing concentration, * reducing transaction costs in international trade and services, or supply chain resilience should be prioritized for discussions in various WTO bodies based on member submissions and proposals. (7) Dedicated discussion in the Committee on Trade and Development on how it’s functioning, which should include designing a new triennial review process to improve the functioning of the committee in line with the Marrakesh Agreement objectives. New Delhi said, “the Committee on Trade and Development can publish a stocktake report on not just what has been achieved but also the gaps, which members believe are holding progress. The CTD should also prepare a way forward for taking up the development dimension starting from the WTO informal retreat on Development.” India said this topic on development should “be a standing General Council agenda topic until MC14.” More importantly, according to India, “If a large part of the membership believes that their agenda is not in lockstep with the priorities of this organization or the messaging being delivered to the external world from the ramparts of Centre William Rappard, a sense of defeatism and decline in members’ interest in the working of this organization is imminent.” India said this negative trend must be arrested through a collective effort. During the General Council meeting, the WTO Director-General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, jumped into the discussion by emphasizing the importance of the issues raised by India. The DG said the Secretariat is working on a comprehensive report on several issues raised by India, suggesting that the report will be circulated sometime in September, said people familiar with the discussions. More than 20 countries took part in the discussions, making comments from their respective perspectives on development. China thanked India “for putting this topic on this (General Council) agenda.” It said that the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Declaration reiterates “the centrality of the development dimension in the work of the WTO” and recognizes that “the full integration of developing Members, including LDCs, in the multilateral trading system is important for their economic development.” China argued that “through trade, the WTO has delivered on the development dimension,” pointing out that “from 1990 to 2022, developing members increased their share of global exports from 16 percent to 47 percent.” China said, “in the same period, the global poverty rate fell from 36 percent to 8.4 percent.” “Trade has integrated more and more people into the global value chain and contributed to lifting over 1 billion people out of poverty,” China added. “In spite of the progress, the development deficit remains, as can be seen from the widening gap of the average per capita GDP between the developing and developed members,” China said, adding that “developing members are particularly vulnerable during times of pandemic, climate change or other external shocks.” The urgent concerns of developing countries, such as on food security, are yet to be addressed, China noted. Therefore, it said that “post-MC13, on the development front, while continuing work on issues such as SDT implementation, LDC graduations, and aid for trade initiatives, we should also give serious thinking to our approaches to development issues in general”. “For WTO negotiations on development, both developing and developed members need to step up further, and towards each other, in a pragmatic, flexible and incremental way, to rebuild trust, enhance cooperation and deliver more,” it added. In an apparent subtle reminder to India, which has opposed the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement, China said it “appreciate(s) the spirit advocated by India in its circulated document, namely “one earth, one family and one future”.” The Chinese trade envoy, Ambassador Li Chenggang, however, said, “I think in the organization, if we have more family like cooperation discussion instead of simple taking or leaving, continuously insist on particular positions without the fair consideration of others, even game playing… I think we can do more, we can [do] better for people, not just on the development issues… We can do more on various issues of members’ concern(s).” Indonesia’s trade envoy, Ambassador Dandy Iswara, said that “our work here in the WTO… must contribute to help Members …. achieve their developmental objectives.” He said, “developing Members comprise about two-thirds of its membership … and increasingly seek to leverage trade … as a powerful engine for their development.” Indonesia said many efforts are critical to meet this goal, including by: addressing imbalances and asymmetries in the WTO agreements; providing developing Members with appropriate policy space to address emerging global challenges; ensuring that developing Members can benefit from effective and operational S&DT; and preserving the fundamental principles of equity, inclusivity, transparency, and consensus-based decision-making in the WTO reform process. Ambassador Iswara said Indonesia supports “the call to further the discussion on these issues in the WTO… in a focused and structured manner.” During the meeting, several industrialized countries responded somewhat tepidly to the Indian proposal, merely suggesting that they are ready to address issues concerning development. +
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