South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE)

National Consultation on WTO Doha Round & South Asia

South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE) organised 'A National Consultation on WTO Doha Round & South Asia: Linking Civil Society with Trade Negotiations' on 19 September 2005 in Kathmandu.

The consultation meeting is part of a multi-stakeholder process, which would help in taking inputs from various stakeholders on issues being discussed under the Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). During the consultations, researchers from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka presented papers on five issues: agriculture, non-agriculture market access, services, trade facilitation and development dimension. The General Council of the WTO members, when adopting the July Package 2004, took up these issues for negotiations. These issues will also be the focus of negotiations during the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference to be held from 13-18 December 2005 in Hong Kong, China.

Speakers agreed that developing countries should be united to achieve their goals. They assailed the developed countries for not adhering to the spirit of the Doha Round by their uncompromising stance during multilateral trade negotiations. As a result, a breakthrough in any of the issues had not been arrived at so far.

Dr. Posh Raj Pandey, President, SAWTEE, spoke about the implications of agriculture of July Package for Nepal. He also said that reduction in domestic support was a double-edged sword and should be considered on a case-by-case scenario. Prof. J. George, from Faculty of Economics and Development Planning, Haryana Institute of Public Administration, spoke about the need to understand the complementarities that exist between agricultural countries and the common issues that can be put forward during negotiations.

Mr. Navin Dahal, Executive Director, SAWTEE, presented a paper on NAMA negotiations, which highlighted the restriction on policy space for developing countries that was inherent if they were to make a high level of binding commitments on tariff reduction in industrial goods. Tariff peaks, tariff escalation and non tariff barriers in developed countries continue to hamper industrialisation prospects in developing countries. Developed countries were still not providing market access to products of developing countries. Mr. Pranav Kumar, Policy Analyst, Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) International, Jaipur; spoke on trade in services. Although South Asian WTO members have advantages in various areas, he also suggested that temporary movement of natural persons should be the common position of South Asian WTO members.

Ms. Jayanthi Thennakoon, Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Colombo; presented a paper on trade facilitation. The provisions of which were included in Articles V (Freedom of Transit), VIII (Fees and Formalities) and X (Publication and Administration of Trade) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), 1994. She presented the trade facilitation proposals of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Although South Asian countries do not dispute the benefits of trade facilitation, the concerns are cost of implementation and clarification regarding special and differential treatment (S&DT) for capacity building.

Mr Pranav Kumar also presented the paper on development dimension, which is a cross-cutting issue covering all WTO agreements. This dimension is vital to preserve and protect the interests of developing countries in general and least developed countries (LDCS) in particular. Market access issues (including addressing supply-side constraints), technical assistance (including funds for LDCs) are vital in this regard. S&DT provisions should also be made binding while the agreements must be based on a non-reciprocity principle in favour of developing countries. Negotiations should take into account the interests of the poorest countries and the poorest nations, including livelihood concerns. All issues viz., agriculture, NAMA, services, trade facilitation, and intellectual property rights, must be linked to the development dimension. As the experience was not encouraging, the success of the multilateral trading system would remain incomplete unless it addressed development concerns.

The chief guest, Mr. Bharat Bahadur Thapa, Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, His Majesty's Government of Nepal (HMG/N), said that as the WTO Ministerial was very close, developing countries have to maintain their unity of purpose to extract a fair deal out of the multilateral trade negotiations. He thanked the organisers for taking the initiate of raising awareness and advocacy; and assured that HMG/N would continue the process of consultations with civil society in relation to WTO issues. Sixty five participants - representing civil society organisations, academia, government and the business sector - attended the one-day workshop.

[View All Events]

Go to Top