Chances are improving that trade ministers will launch a new round of world trade talks at their November meeting in Doha, Qatar, World Trade Organization officials say.
The need for a new broad round of negotiations is growing, the organization said in its 2001 annual report, published May 23.
“No one can yet predict whether the factors favoring the launch of a major new round at Doha will prove strong enough to outweigh the difficulties, though the odds in favor are improving,” the report said.
Finding agreement on the agenda and mandate for a new broad negotiation will require “flexibility and realism on all sides,” it said.
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But the bureaucracy for the 140-nation trading organization, headed by New Zealander Mike Moore, said there are increasing pressures to accomplish in Qatar what eluded trade ministers in Seattle in 1999 – the launch of a broad negotiation.
- The world economy is slowing down this year and economic troubles often lead to protectionism. “As we have seen in past downturns, the WTO’s rules and disciplines help restrain protectionist pressures and keep markets open, which in turn reduces the severity of the downturn and brings an earlier recovery.”
- There is a growing interest in regional trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. “When regionalism is seen as a substitute for multilateralism, it can be a danger to more vulnerable economies.”
- Negotiations on agriculture and services, under way for the past year in Geneva, would receive a boost if a broader set of talks were launched, making member nations more willing to make agricultural concessions if they could win some points in other sector bargaining.
- WTO members, including supporters of liberalized trade, believe that rules agreed to in 1994 when the last round ended need to be updated and improved. “Many member governments and WTO critics agree that certain adjustments to the rules are needed if the trading system is to better reflect the social, economic and political conditions of a rapidly changing world.”
The WTO administration said that member countries have worked hard during the past year to try to correct some of the problems that led to the Seattle collapse.
A key complaint was that smaller and developing countries felt talks were too dominated by bigger and richer countries. Some progress on making the trade talks and decision making more democratic have resulted from “intensive discussions and negotiations this past year.”
The Seattle meetings also highlighted widespread public unhappiness with the secret nature of the deals and the view by thousands of protesters that deals were being made in the interests of businesses rather than citizens.
The WTO report said there is a greater effort this time to be open and as public as possible about goals and negotiating stands and practices.
Growing public interest has led to “a number of instances of ill-informed comments and misinformation.”
That has led the WTO bureaucracy and member countries to work harder “to increase the public’s awareness of the facts of the situation, and to emphasize the importance of conducting public debates on trade policy on the basis of an accurate understanding of the policies being considered by the negotiators.”
