UNCTAD - Preparatory Committee for UNCTAD XII (Fifth meeting)
29 November 2007
All the discussion on this day was almost the fact of G77 and China and the EU.
G 77 is the most important speaker. The group makes a lot of amendments in every paragraph.
In opposed to G77 representative, Portugal (EU speaker) decides to make only short remarks.
Japan requires comments on some paragraph.
Regarding to the paragraph 52, Japan thinks that “Climate Change claiming” mustn’t to be included in UNCTAD paper.
On contrary, Brazil needs to take into account the climate change in the different economic discussions (biotrade).
Brazil keep on being very pro-active in the negotiation, G77 makes many amendments in several sentences.
In many times, Portugal wishes to delete some paragraphs or sentences.
EU tries to include the word “sustainable” when we speak about “development” (paragraph 58).
G77 asks to do one paragraph to take into account the GSTP. So they want to separate the paragraph 60 to create the paragraph 60 bis.
In this paragraph, Portugal wants to delete the word “new protectionism”.
G77 try to include “predictability” on the paragraph 64.
Brazil was dynamic because of many claiming of the G77 members.
During the meeting, Portugal says “ok the important isn’t the word that we choose but the fact that we discuss on”.
In paragraph 66, Portugal decides to delete the word “tourism”.
Damien AFONSO
jeudi 29 novembre 2007
Group of 77 and China for UNCTAD XII
Group of 77 and China for UNCTAD XII
\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"4\"\>On behalf of H.E. Ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney, Permanent Representative of Brazil and Chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the G77 and China for UNCTAD XII, \u003cb\>there will be a group meeting on Tuesday 27 November 2007 at 10.00hrs and at 15.00hrs. in Room XXVI with interpretation.\u003c/b\>\u003c/font\> \n\u003cp\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"4\"\>Agenda: Preparations for UNCTAD XII Prepcom Text. \u003c/font\>\n\u003cdiv\>\n\u003cp\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"3\"\>Edward chisanga\u003c/font\> \n\u003cp\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"3\"\>Officer in charge\u003c/font\> \n\u003cdiv\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"3\"\> Group Liaison Unit\u003c/font\> \n\u003cp\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/div\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/div\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/div\>\u003cbr\>\u003c/div\>\u003c/div\>\u003c/div\>",0]
);
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Tuesday 27 November 2007
Sub-theme 1: Enhancing coherence at all levels for sustainable economic development and poverty reduction in global policymaking, including the contribution of regional approaches
Chairman asked to all members to make compromises because we need to work so fast to permit to the G77 and China to have a position paper behind the lunch.
On the paragraph 60, GRULAC requires to separate the sentence because of they need to devote one paragraph to the GSTP (Global System of Trade Preference) among Developing Countries.
In many times during the conference, the Chair invites every participant to be reasonable and very economic through amendments.
On the paragraph 61, the Assembly decides to make efforts, and the Maurice proposals accepted.
On the 62, Honduras would like to understand what the Chair wants to say when he speaks about “private sector and government”. Egypt try to insert a new sentence but Chair find a compromise with the term “compatible” instead of “harmonized”.
Secretary fined a solution with a new 62bis which contain “arbitrary” (G77 position paper).
On the paragraph 63, Perou propose to include an example with COMPAL programs (an UNCTAD program create three years ago which it benefits to the Latina American and African Countries.
To be more comprehensive, Chair wants that Perou explain the programs.
South Africa considers that COMPAC could become a platform.
On the paragraph 64, Ethiopia (assistant) and Maurice (The donor community and international financial institutions should ensure that the Aid for Trade initiative is comprehensive in scope, funding and sustainability and predictability) make amendments.
A debate is opening during the paragraph 68. Guatemala wants two paragraphs, but Iran and Maurice wants only one. Finally, Chair keeps two paragraphs.
On the 69, Asia desire to delete this paragraph.
70: Grulac asks for two paragraphs on Energy
71: South Africa adds “international development”
Chair asks to Algeria to demand to his coordinator when he wants to make an amendment. Always in the same idea, Chair wants to win time and prevent the negotiations in a last debate.
75: (b) Grulac wants to add “trade facilitation”.
(h) Maurice removes “such”.
Iran wants to discuss about his paragraph but the Chair need to go faster.
77. After an intensive debate, Chair decides to let the different example on the paragraph 77: UNCTAD has been, and should remain, at the forefront of efforts to resolve the trade and development problems associated with the commodity economy covering agriculture, forestry, fisheries, metals and minerals, energy, oil and gas.
78: (b) Chair adds “convened by members States”.
(e) Grulac adds IADGs.
82: Into this paragraph it as the Chair (in the name of Brazil) who wants to include “biofuels”.
83: in the same idea, El Salvador included “Trade and Development” on this paragraph.
Generally, the Latina American country was very active concerning “Biotrade”.
Damien AFONSO
\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"4\"\>On behalf of H.E. Ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney, Permanent Representative of Brazil and Chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the G77 and China for UNCTAD XII, \u003cb\>there will be a group meeting on Tuesday 27 November 2007 at 10.00hrs and at 15.00hrs. in Room XXVI with interpretation.\u003c/b\>\u003c/font\> \n\u003cp\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"4\"\>Agenda: Preparations for UNCTAD XII Prepcom Text. \u003c/font\>\n\u003cdiv\>\n\u003cp\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"3\"\>Edward chisanga\u003c/font\> \n\u003cp\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"3\"\>Officer in charge\u003c/font\> \n\u003cdiv\>\n\u003cp\>\u003cfont face\u003d\"Arial\" size\u003d\"3\"\> Group Liaison Unit\u003c/font\> \n\u003cp\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/div\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/div\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/p\>\u003c/div\>\u003cbr\>\u003c/div\>\u003c/div\>\u003c/div\>",0]
);
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Tuesday 27 November 2007
Sub-theme 1: Enhancing coherence at all levels for sustainable economic development and poverty reduction in global policymaking, including the contribution of regional approaches
Chairman asked to all members to make compromises because we need to work so fast to permit to the G77 and China to have a position paper behind the lunch.
On the paragraph 60, GRULAC requires to separate the sentence because of they need to devote one paragraph to the GSTP (Global System of Trade Preference) among Developing Countries.
In many times during the conference, the Chair invites every participant to be reasonable and very economic through amendments.
On the paragraph 61, the Assembly decides to make efforts, and the Maurice proposals accepted.
On the 62, Honduras would like to understand what the Chair wants to say when he speaks about “private sector and government”. Egypt try to insert a new sentence but Chair find a compromise with the term “compatible” instead of “harmonized”.
Secretary fined a solution with a new 62bis which contain “arbitrary” (G77 position paper).
On the paragraph 63, Perou propose to include an example with COMPAL programs (an UNCTAD program create three years ago which it benefits to the Latina American and African Countries.
To be more comprehensive, Chair wants that Perou explain the programs.
South Africa considers that COMPAC could become a platform.
On the paragraph 64, Ethiopia (assistant) and Maurice (The donor community and international financial institutions should ensure that the Aid for Trade initiative is comprehensive in scope, funding and sustainability and predictability) make amendments.
A debate is opening during the paragraph 68. Guatemala wants two paragraphs, but Iran and Maurice wants only one. Finally, Chair keeps two paragraphs.
On the 69, Asia desire to delete this paragraph.
70: Grulac asks for two paragraphs on Energy
71: South Africa adds “international development”
Chair asks to Algeria to demand to his coordinator when he wants to make an amendment. Always in the same idea, Chair wants to win time and prevent the negotiations in a last debate.
75: (b) Grulac wants to add “trade facilitation”.
(h) Maurice removes “such”.
Iran wants to discuss about his paragraph but the Chair need to go faster.
77. After an intensive debate, Chair decides to let the different example on the paragraph 77: UNCTAD has been, and should remain, at the forefront of efforts to resolve the trade and development problems associated with the commodity economy covering agriculture, forestry, fisheries, metals and minerals, energy, oil and gas.
78: (b) Chair adds “convened by members States”.
(e) Grulac adds IADGs.
82: Into this paragraph it as the Chair (in the name of Brazil) who wants to include “biofuels”.
83: in the same idea, El Salvador included “Trade and Development” on this paragraph.
Generally, the Latina American country was very active concerning “Biotrade”.
Damien AFONSO
Asian Group (UNCTAD)
15 November 2007
Asian Group (UNCTAD)
Introduction
Addressing the challenges of the current stage of globalization and creating opportunities for development
On the paragraph 2, China propose to change “a lack of productive capacity and a lack of access to basic services” because of extreme poverty is due to many reasons and not only the lack of productive capacity and access to basic services.
Chairman of Asian group explain to Liban Delegation that we need to take political decision behind to make actions on the ground.
Liban and Singapour want to do one paragraph with paragraph 3 and 4 because of unuse of an example in paragraph 4: “For example, the challenges faced by the least developed countries (LDCs) and some African countries are different from those faced by some countries with economies in transition, and their capacities for tackling the challenges are different too, even though all are seeking to benefit from the new wave of globalization in which the South is playing an increasingly significant role”.
However, Chair of Asian group prefer to keep the separate paragraph.
On the paragraph 5 and 23, Liban desire to speak about “developed countries” rather than “advanced countries”.
On the paragraph 8, the word “finished” is negative for the Philippines delegation, so Bangladesh proposes to use the word “single” to speak about economic model.
Chair thinks that development on paragraph 14 concern all the level and not only the national level: “At the national level, sustainable and equitable development requires pro-growth macroeconomic policies, efficient structural policies, good governance and respect for human and economic rights”
Pakistan wants to delete “At the national level”.
Damien AFONSO
Asian Group (UNCTAD)
Introduction
Addressing the challenges of the current stage of globalization and creating opportunities for development
On the paragraph 2, China propose to change “a lack of productive capacity and a lack of access to basic services” because of extreme poverty is due to many reasons and not only the lack of productive capacity and access to basic services.
Chairman of Asian group explain to Liban Delegation that we need to take political decision behind to make actions on the ground.
Liban and Singapour want to do one paragraph with paragraph 3 and 4 because of unuse of an example in paragraph 4: “For example, the challenges faced by the least developed countries (LDCs) and some African countries are different from those faced by some countries with economies in transition, and their capacities for tackling the challenges are different too, even though all are seeking to benefit from the new wave of globalization in which the South is playing an increasingly significant role”.
However, Chair of Asian group prefer to keep the separate paragraph.
On the paragraph 5 and 23, Liban desire to speak about “developed countries” rather than “advanced countries”.
On the paragraph 8, the word “finished” is negative for the Philippines delegation, so Bangladesh proposes to use the word “single” to speak about economic model.
Chair thinks that development on paragraph 14 concern all the level and not only the national level: “At the national level, sustainable and equitable development requires pro-growth macroeconomic policies, efficient structural policies, good governance and respect for human and economic rights”
Pakistan wants to delete “At the national level”.
Damien AFONSO
UNCTAD´s Sixth Debt Management
UNCTAD´s Sixth Debt Management
21/11/07
EMERGING CAPITAL MARKETS
Size, Trends, and Regional Characteristics.
Mr. David T. Beers, Managing Director,
Sovereign & International Public Finance Ratings,
Standard & Poor’s, UK
Recent Market Behavior
- The global market turbulence since July 2007 has had only a muted impact on the EM sector.
- New sovereign foreign currency debt issuance by Ghana, Sri Lanka, and especially other countries in Africa.
Emerging Market Sovereign Bond Spreads by Rating
- Liquidity, hedging mechanisms developing but often limited
- Foreign investors participation rising in benign market condition, but will that change?
- Foreign participation in local markets can be expected to fall in periods of financial distress, as in Mexico, Russia, and Turkey in the past.
- How will local currency denominated, foreign currency payable debt governed under NY or English law fare in future debt restructurings?
- Will select restructurings of inflation linked bonds damage cross-border investor interest in this instrument?
- More classes of debt have potential to change issue and investor dynamics in restructurings in ways that are hard to predict.
FORMULATION OF STRATEGIES FOR ENTERING DOMESTIC
AND INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL MARKETS
Mr. Udaibir Saran Das, Division Chief,
Monetary & Capital Markets Department, IMF
What if the Outlook Worsens?
Unlikely to lead to major pull backs by foreign banks and portfolio investors.
LICs as an Asset Class
Experience of Eastern Europe relevant for Africa?
Should non-concessionnal borrowing from International markets be limited?
Offshore Financing
Subsidiaridies of large banks
Currency option market
Growing Investor Interest in the last “frontier”?
Benefits of International assurance.
Use a proceed is a key factor for early decision
Commons Errors
- Issue sizes rush to market under pricing
- Poor selection of lead managers
- Insufficient choice of proposals
- Weak investors base
- Issuing without formulating debt strategy
- Delay
Mr. Tadashi Endo, Senior Financial Sector Specialist,
Corporate Governance and Capital Markets Department, World Bank
Two dimensions for buildings confidence and attracting longer-tem funding
- Common factors for liquid government bond market supply, demand, and intermediation.
- Building Blocks for Yield Curve and Low-cost Public Debt
3 pillars approach to support liquid secondary market of government bonds
Yeld-seeking Assets
market microstructure
Performance competition
We need policy coordination between.
- Debt management Office
- Capital Market Regulator
- Contractual Saving Regulators
- Central Bank
Damien AFONSO
21/11/07
EMERGING CAPITAL MARKETS
Size, Trends, and Regional Characteristics.
Mr. David T. Beers, Managing Director,
Sovereign & International Public Finance Ratings,
Standard & Poor’s, UK
Recent Market Behavior
- The global market turbulence since July 2007 has had only a muted impact on the EM sector.
- New sovereign foreign currency debt issuance by Ghana, Sri Lanka, and especially other countries in Africa.
Emerging Market Sovereign Bond Spreads by Rating
- Liquidity, hedging mechanisms developing but often limited
- Foreign investors participation rising in benign market condition, but will that change?
- Foreign participation in local markets can be expected to fall in periods of financial distress, as in Mexico, Russia, and Turkey in the past.
- How will local currency denominated, foreign currency payable debt governed under NY or English law fare in future debt restructurings?
- Will select restructurings of inflation linked bonds damage cross-border investor interest in this instrument?
- More classes of debt have potential to change issue and investor dynamics in restructurings in ways that are hard to predict.
FORMULATION OF STRATEGIES FOR ENTERING DOMESTIC
AND INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL MARKETS
Mr. Udaibir Saran Das, Division Chief,
Monetary & Capital Markets Department, IMF
What if the Outlook Worsens?
Unlikely to lead to major pull backs by foreign banks and portfolio investors.
LICs as an Asset Class
Experience of Eastern Europe relevant for Africa?
Should non-concessionnal borrowing from International markets be limited?
Offshore Financing
Subsidiaridies of large banks
Currency option market
Growing Investor Interest in the last “frontier”?
Benefits of International assurance.
Use a proceed is a key factor for early decision
Commons Errors
- Issue sizes rush to market under pricing
- Poor selection of lead managers
- Insufficient choice of proposals
- Weak investors base
- Issuing without formulating debt strategy
- Delay
Mr. Tadashi Endo, Senior Financial Sector Specialist,
Corporate Governance and Capital Markets Department, World Bank
Two dimensions for buildings confidence and attracting longer-tem funding
- Common factors for liquid government bond market supply, demand, and intermediation.
- Building Blocks for Yield Curve and Low-cost Public Debt
3 pillars approach to support liquid secondary market of government bonds
Yeld-seeking Assets
market microstructure
Performance competition
We need policy coordination between.
- Debt management Office
- Capital Market Regulator
- Contractual Saving Regulators
- Central Bank
Damien AFONSO
mercredi 14 novembre 2007
“Business, Social Policy and Corporate Political Influence in Developing Countries”
UNRISD
“Business, Social Policy and Corporate Political Influence in Developing Countries”
· Session 5 New Social Pacts and Regulatory Politics
ü Agni Kalfagianni, Professor of International Relations at the
It seems that the global food governance is more and more practice by the private sector, and we could especially see an increase of private governance institution.
On the one part, food sector involve many retail concentration and a control product chain from farm to the fork.
On the other part, we could see that the competition between every companies is not only on the price but also on the quality.
Concerning Developing countries, Export oriented on agricultural production.
Businesses depend on the ability of retailers to exercise significant market power (structural and discursive power).
Some examples: Global Food Initiative, Europgap, Food trace, British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standard.
Consequences
Positive consequences are social provisions such as worker welfare included in the standard.
Secondly, we could consider that there are many new opportunities for exportations since we are in a global market.
Then, all these consequences have positive effects for domestic food safety.
Unfortunately, because of concentration, small farmers and retail stores squeezed out of business.
This evolution increase mass rural exodus and unemployment.
Concerning the democratic legitimacy, we could stop on many issues: Question about participation, transparency and accountability for the input.
Moreover, how inclusive the developing countries public on output.
In a deliberative democracy, how fostering inclusiveness and unconstrained dialog?
On his meetings, Agni Kalfagianni uses more questions rather than answers.
ü Paola Perez Aleman, Mc Gill University, Professor of Strategy and Organization: “MNC-NGO Partnerships”
We speak about alliance or partnerships?
On the one part, MNC make resistance to change these business practices.
On the other part, NGO pressure to collaborate with MNC.
MNC and NGO should be working together, because of their active support at the local level, they could create new standards and including those standards in local reality.
For example, MNC-NGO partnership could be effectiveness to bear the coffee crisis.
It permits to achieving upgrading and new norms about costs, affordability, certification challenge, assistance (technical, financial, organizing) and to adapt specific standards for small producers.
We need to standards emerging, to increase public-private networks, norms and principles for coordinating relations between NGO and MNC and finally to upgrade competitiveness.
Damien Afonso
dimanche 4 novembre 2007
Trade and Development Board 54th Session STRUCTURALLY WEAK, VULNERABLE ANS SMALL ECONOMIES. Who are they. What can UNCTAD do for them
11, October 2007
The presentation was done by Mr. Habib Ouane, Director of the Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes
“Members States of UNCTAD, in paragraph 33 of the São Paolo Consensus, decided that UNCTAD should enhance its work on the special problems of LDCs, small island developing States, and of landlocked developing countries as well as structurally weak, vulnerable, and small economies.”
A background note on the issue is available on UNCTAD’s web page: TD/B/54/CRP.4
According to Mr. Ouane there is a common set of issues among all these countries (92).
The smallness:
- it’s a major handicap in all LDCs, 50. No country of a population above 45.000 citizens can be considered as an LDC.
- LLDCs: 31 countries among witch 16 are also LDCs.
- SIDS: this category has been established in 1994 in Barbados. And it’s only since then that island are considered by the UN system as small.
The structural weakness:
- the criteria to identify an LDC among the UN system is the capital, the economy diversification, the primacy of producing capacity development.
- landlockness constitutes a break for development.
- in the SIDS, there is a weakness of economy concentration and marginalisation from international economy.
As for UNCTAD, the vulnerability is most a matter of LDCs.
They are 3 lines of action in UNCTAD’s work in favour of SWVSEs: advising on implication of countries status; analysing and explaining issues; offering direct assistance to relevant countries (international tourism, cultural industries, technologies learning, knowledge factor)
Who are these SWVSEs ?
There are 2 ways of answering.
- leave the answer at the discretion of the interested members States. Let the member States decide and define themselves as in the World Trade Organisation.
- in UNCTAD we make an effort to delaminate the groups through criteria. We try to carry out the identified exercise in a proper manner: analyzing the 3 implicit criteria structural weakness, smallness and vulnerability; selecting relevant variables:
To define the SWVSEs, structural weakness and vulnerability are captured simultaneously through the UN exposure Index. The latter is most desirable to capture the vulnerability: share of primary sector GDP; Index of merchant export concentration; population in logarithm; index of remoteness.
The smallness is captured through the GDP. São Tome and Principe had the weakest GDP in 2005. Mr. Oaune reminded that Palestine received attention from UNCTAD although it doesn’t belong to any UN category.
What can UNCTAD do for the SWVSEs?
-Support paramount development goals of SWVSEs
- build economy resilience as response to vulnerability
- UNCTAD’s action to reduce structural disadvantages. There are 2 areas of assistance and support: institution capacity building and assistance (investment policies); trade policy (facilitation, transport, e-commerce, customs).
- UNCTAD’s action to enhance economic specialization: primacy sector (commodity related information); secondary sector (support entrepreneurship, dynamic and new sector on World Trade, enterprise competition); tertiary sector (tourism, creative industries, and other services: health, music…)
International tourism is the only permanent task force on UNCTAD.
Some other approaches to SWVSE s:
- Regional approach: central America (9 SWVSEs), Africa (6 non LDC)
- Cooperation with other organisations: Regional Economic Commission, World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asia Development Bank, International American Development Bank.
In conclusion, Mr. Habib Ouane said that countries should be more responsible in calling for UNCTAD assistance.
IPF
The presentation was done by Mr. Habib Ouane, Director of the Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes
“Members States of UNCTAD, in paragraph 33 of the São Paolo Consensus, decided that UNCTAD should enhance its work on the special problems of LDCs, small island developing States, and of landlocked developing countries as well as structurally weak, vulnerable, and small economies.”
A background note on the issue is available on UNCTAD’s web page: TD/B/54/CRP.4
According to Mr. Ouane there is a common set of issues among all these countries (92).
The smallness:
- it’s a major handicap in all LDCs, 50. No country of a population above 45.000 citizens can be considered as an LDC.
- LLDCs: 31 countries among witch 16 are also LDCs.
- SIDS: this category has been established in 1994 in Barbados. And it’s only since then that island are considered by the UN system as small.
The structural weakness:
- the criteria to identify an LDC among the UN system is the capital, the economy diversification, the primacy of producing capacity development.
- landlockness constitutes a break for development.
- in the SIDS, there is a weakness of economy concentration and marginalisation from international economy.
As for UNCTAD, the vulnerability is most a matter of LDCs.
They are 3 lines of action in UNCTAD’s work in favour of SWVSEs: advising on implication of countries status; analysing and explaining issues; offering direct assistance to relevant countries (international tourism, cultural industries, technologies learning, knowledge factor)
Who are these SWVSEs ?
There are 2 ways of answering.
- leave the answer at the discretion of the interested members States. Let the member States decide and define themselves as in the World Trade Organisation.
- in UNCTAD we make an effort to delaminate the groups through criteria. We try to carry out the identified exercise in a proper manner: analyzing the 3 implicit criteria structural weakness, smallness and vulnerability; selecting relevant variables:
To define the SWVSEs, structural weakness and vulnerability are captured simultaneously through the UN exposure Index. The latter is most desirable to capture the vulnerability: share of primary sector GDP; Index of merchant export concentration; population in logarithm; index of remoteness.
The smallness is captured through the GDP. São Tome and Principe had the weakest GDP in 2005. Mr. Oaune reminded that Palestine received attention from UNCTAD although it doesn’t belong to any UN category.
What can UNCTAD do for the SWVSEs?
-Support paramount development goals of SWVSEs
- build economy resilience as response to vulnerability
- UNCTAD’s action to reduce structural disadvantages. There are 2 areas of assistance and support: institution capacity building and assistance (investment policies); trade policy (facilitation, transport, e-commerce, customs).
- UNCTAD’s action to enhance economic specialization: primacy sector (commodity related information); secondary sector (support entrepreneurship, dynamic and new sector on World Trade, enterprise competition); tertiary sector (tourism, creative industries, and other services: health, music…)
International tourism is the only permanent task force on UNCTAD.
Some other approaches to SWVSE s:
- Regional approach: central America (9 SWVSEs), Africa (6 non LDC)
- Cooperation with other organisations: Regional Economic Commission, World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asia Development Bank, International American Development Bank.
In conclusion, Mr. Habib Ouane said that countries should be more responsible in calling for UNCTAD assistance.
IPF
jeudi 1 novembre 2007
WTO Public Forum, October 2007
The WTO’s 7th Annual Public Forum was organized around four key topics that were to be debated during the two days: global governance; coherence between the national and international levels of policy-making and between different multilateral institutions; economic growth and the role of trade as a vehicle for development; and finally, sustainable development.
Plenary opening
In his opening speech, Director-General Pascal Lamy, highlighted the numerous occasions where civil society had a real impact on the WTO agenda. These include the 2003 agreement on cheaper medicines for developing countries, and the inclusion of issues such as fisheries subsidies, environmental goods and services, and food aid in the current Doha negotiations. With regard to the ongoing negotiations concerning agricultural and industrial goods, Pascal Lamy seemed very optimistic, stating that « as positions converge on these key subjects, the pace of work is also accelerating on the rest of the Doha agenda ». Finally, to conclude his keynote address, the Director-General stressed the importance of the progress made in the parallel agenda package on Aid-for-Trade.
Her Excellency, Ms. Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland, emphasized the need to keep current Doha negotiations alive, in order to harness globalization, stating that bilateral or regional trade agreements were only second best solutions. She said that the way in which the WTO could contribute to control the phenomenon was precisely through a guarantee of a universal, rule-based and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, which would be especially in the interest of weaker and poorer nations. Concerning the global economic situation today, Ms Halonen stressed that « all countries have the right to develop and to aim for growth and prosperity ». She also mentioned the growing influence of trade on other non-economic dimensions of development such as the environment, democracy and human rights, and urged the WTO and other international organizations to ensure that their policies are coherent with each other. On the particular issue of sustainable development, Ms Halonen stressed that industrialized countries must continue to take all necessary steps to promote access to environmentally sound technologies for all countries, and show solidarity towards developing countries that address climate change. Finally, Ms Halonen congratulated the positive role the WTO has taken in its Aid for Trade programme, which has seen an expansion of its agenda beyond the narrowly defined technical assistance, and is now supporting developing countries efforts to achieve better competitiveness in world trade.
Ms Olubanke King-Akerele, Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Liberia, said that the topic under discussion was of vital importance to Liberia and to all developing nations around the globe, who have not yet seen the benefits of trade. In this respect, she expressed a rather pessimistic view concerning the Doha negotiations, stating that « recasting the debate and making real progress will be particularly difficult with respect to the full and fair integration of the 50 least developed countries into the multilateral system ». Ms Akerele gave a brief account of her country’s economic situation, and she insisted on the role of trade in solidifying peace in post-conflict situations, and in particular in the Mano River Union Subregion of Liberia, which includes also Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire. Here she has made a reference to the growth circles occurring in South East Asia, as an example of positive developments at the sub regional level, that bring peace and security through infrastructural development. Ms Akerele continued by addressing Liberia’s current process of developing a poverty reduction strategy. With the help of the International Trade Center, Liberia developed a trade road map, which includes a series of supply-chain analysis on products such as coffee, cocoa, rubber, wood products, crafts and spices. What is significant about this, Ms Akerele said, is that « we are bringing to the small people what this business of trade is all about ». She then tackled the question of global governance and the role the WTO played in the construction of such a system. She said that the attacks the WTO received from various actors concentrated mainly on the need for a more balanced decision-making power between rich and poor, and a more egalitarian trade regime. She insisted on the fact that if Doha failed, the international community would have failed the global poor, and she also requested to see the gender dimension provided for in WTO trade matters. Ms Akerele concluded her speech by reminding the public about the urgency of the matters under discussion for « the bottom billion ».
Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, spoke of good news with regard to the goal of reducing global poverty by half by 2015, and attributed much of the credit to the WTO, if the happy outcome was to be met. He gave the examples of China and India as countries of unprecedented sustainable growth and poverty reduction, and said that their successes show why the Millennium Development Goals will be met by 2015. Professor Mahbubani added that the reason of such extraordinary success lies in the fact that China and India « have bought and are implementing the essential WTO vision that both they and the world will be better off by opening and liberalizing their economies, especially in the field of trade ». Nevertheless, he noted that the current impasse in the Doha negotiations came from the loss of faith in trade-liberalization from the traditional champions of liberalization, namely the United States and the European Union, who are afraid of loosing their competitiveness to developing countries like China and India. He qualified this situation as tragic. With respect to this new international context, Professor Mahbubani claimed that the role and responsibility of NGOs had to change dramatically. He urged them to change their attitudes towards globalization, giving the example of China’s strong growth since its entry into the WTO, as evidence of the virtues of trade liberalization. He proceeded to give examples of how globalization is actually helping the poorest people around the world, through cell phones, the use of internet, televisions or education. In his concluding remarks, Professor Mahbubani apologized for his optimistic faith in globalization and reiterated his concern with regard to the increase in trade barriers quietly taking place in America and Europe, a phenomenon which he qualified as « fatal » for the developed countries and the world at large, in building a better world for all.
A Governance Audit for the WTO: Roundtable Discussion on Making Global Trade work for Development
The workshop was divided into two parts, first a joint presentation by Dr. Carolyn Deere, Mr. Mayur Patel and Mr. Arunabha Ghosh, from the Global Trade Governance Project, GEG, Oxford, followed by a roundtable discussion with panelists Mr. Harlem Désir MEP, Vice Chairman of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament; Mr. Faizel Ismail, Head of Delegation to the WTO from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Africa; Mr. Alejandro Jara, WTO Deputy Director-General; H. E. Mr. Mothae Maruping, Ambassador, Permanent representative of Lesotho to the WTO; Mr. Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Chief Executive, ICTSD; H. E. Mr. Guillermo Valles Galmés, Ambassador, Permanent representative of Uruguay to the WTO.
The joint presentation began by establishing a governance audit as a means to shed light on decision-making process in the WTO. The concept was used as a tool to systematically identify the mechanisms for improving the responsiveness of the WTO system to development priorities and sustainability concerns. The presentation focused on three of the eight functions served by the WTO: negotiation, monitoring, and technical assistance and capacity building.
1. The negotiation function, Mr. Mayur Patel:
Mr. Patel spoke of the informal changes occurring in the decision-making process, and in particular of the rising number of developing country coalitions and their inclusion as platforms for joint-representation in the WTO. He said that what was striking about this new trend of coalition bargaining was the unprecedented institutionalization of these groupings. The result of this is that developing countries are enhancing their representation and negotiation capacity, since their delegations are usually relatively small and ill equipped to influence the negotiations. Coalition bargaining has thus allowed them to partially offset their individual constraints through cooperation in informal gathering. Coalitions have also improved access to WTO decision-making by providing developing countries with a foothold in previously exclusive meetings. Finally, a third implication of coalition representation is that it has improved access of many weak states and the internal transparency of some WTO decision-making processes.
2. The monitoring function, Mr. Arunabha Ghosh:
Mr. Ghosh reminded the audience that the Trade Policy Review Mechanism was established in 1989, as a means to increase the collective understanding of members’ policies. Originally, developing countries accepted the TPRM with some exceptions. The TPRM’s activity has grown significantly over the years: almost all countries have undergone a review at least once, 26 of the 32 LDC members have been reviewed, while they received technical assistance since 2000 to conduct their own reviews, and the use of regional reviews has also been introduced, in order to highlight challenges to trade policy from a regional perspective. Nevertheless, the participation of a majority of WTO’s members remains negligible. Mr. Ghosh estimated that an average LDC has participated only in three meetings, and the likelihood that they will ask a question or raise a point is only 2%. The reasons for this may include questions of maintaining preferences with richer trading partners, other meetings of more immediate importance occurring at the same time as the review meetings, or the lack of technical expertise of developing countries to understand the policies of their trading partners and ask pertinent questions. The outcome of this trend is that developing countries remain with few possible avenues to demand any policy correction. The implications for developing countries range from magnified informational problems, to widening information and analysis gaps between small and large developing countries, as well as emergence of developing country coalitions that continue to be constrained by limited technical expertise.
3. The capacity-building function, Dr. Carolyn Deere
Dr. Deere spoke of the broad political consensus with regard to the assistance required by developing countries to maximize the gains of their participation in the WTO. The rationale for the trade-related technical assistance and capacity building program (TACB) was to empower developing countries to engage more effectively in the multilateral trading system so that they reap a fair share of its political and social gains. In this respect, the TACB program focuses on fore core priorities: building supply-side capacity to benefit from new international trade opportunities, supporting the institutional infrastructure to implement WTO agreements, development-oriented legal and policy assistance to revise laws in order to meet WTO obligations, and also supporting strengthened participation in negotiations and decision-making processes. Since 1995, both the scale and the scope for TACB have expanded significantly. Nevertheless, some outstanding challenges remain, related to the fact that TACB is a donor-driven program. The first challenge pertains to the fact that there is a donor control over the resources. Indeed, despite a large increase in funding for TACB since 2002, resources still fall short of that which developing countries actually need to obtain benefits from their WTO participation. There is also an uneven commitment to multilateral TACB initiatives, as developed countries usually prefer bilateral agreements. Furthermore, TACB financing is subject to the vagaries of donor’s changing trade and foreign policy priorities; the reality is that most developed countries allocate resources according to their own national priorities. A second challenge is coordination and ownership constraints at the National level. This includes managing TACB from a host of different donors and dealing with short-term aid instead of long-term investments.
During the roundtable discussion, Ambassador Ismail commented on the importance of coalitions and the need for coherence in the WTO capacity-building process. He also said with regard to the TPRM, that it is also important that developed countries act as they should and respect their obligations vis-à-vis developing countries. Ambassador Maruping also commented on the TPR and said that it was imperative for the WTO to maintain its relevance. Ambassador Valles commented on the purpose of coalition formation, which he said was to establish an agenda that will benefit developing countries, as well as provide information and transparency. Mr. Jara spoke of strengthening negotiation power through coalition building, and suggested that the TPR should be open to the public in order to improve it. He also stated that the deficit in subsidies notification affects the developing countries in upholding their rights, and that capacity-building lacks resources. Lastly, Mr. Désir suggested to set up a parliamentary assembly in the WTO in order to facilitate understanding between the North and the South.
A series of questions were then taken up from the audience.
Restoring Morality to the Global Market
The workshop was made up of moderator Mr. Jean-Pierre Lehmann, professor of international political economy at the IMD and founding Director of The Evian Group; Mr. Ravi Kanth Devarakonda, Geneva editor of the Washington Trade Daily and Deccan Herald; Ms. Ximena Escobar de Nogales, Deputy Director and senior economic counselor at CASIN; H. E. Ms. Gail Mathurin, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Jamaica; Mr. Aldo Matteuci, Senior fellow at the DiploFoundation.
Mr. Lehmann made some introductory remarks. He said that the global market economy hosts many injustices, and that the Doha Round was an opportunity to redress some of these injustices. He also commented on the importance of building coalitions in order to restore morality to the global market.
Mr. Matteuci’s presentation focused on the laws that govern the market, and not vice-versa. He reminded the audience that even Adam Smith’s economical theory of the invisible hand contained an element of morality to it.
Ms. Escobar de Nogales talked about consumer behavior. In particular, she focused on the importance of consumer behavior for developing countries and stated that the consumer must have an active morality in order to make a difference on the global market.
Mr. Devarakonda concentrated on the issue of patented drugs. He affirmed that two billion people lack access to essential medication at the moment, but the market was the ultimate arbitrator of price setting. This caused a moral dilemma, in the sense that people are dying because they do not have access to medicines, but these are protected by patents in Western countries in order to stimulate innovation. The current system of Compulsory License Mechanism tries to deal with this issue, but developing countries are sometimes prevented from using it, due to pressure from the drugs industry. So the question remained on how could one redress morality in this context. Mr. Devarakonda suggested to set up a global public pact, that would provide a code of conduct for extreme situations, where the market alone cannot be the sole decider.
Ambassador Mathurin’s intervention was concerned with who’s morality should guide the global market.
A series of questions were then taken up from the audience.
Coherent Strategies for Trade Liberalization – Bottom-up policies regional agreements and the WTO-system compatibility
The Session was composed of Moderator Mr. Frederik Erixon, Director of the ECIPE; Dr. Razeen Sally, Director ECIPE; Professor Patrick Messerlin, form the Groupe Economie Mondiale, Sciences po Paris; Mr. Huang Rengang, Minister Counsellor of China to the WTO; and Mr. Roderick Abbott, former Deputy Director-General of the WTO.
Mr Erixon made some opening remarks by asking whether there were some direct or indirect effects of different types of liberalization on the WTO system and what could one make of the new phenomenon of autonomous liberalization.
Dr Sally discussed medium-term strategic issues, including the multilateralization of regional agreements, the usefulness of having some rules agenda, as well as the acceleration of unilateral liberalization, particularly in Asia. He noted three changes from the GATT to the WTO: the agenda has broadened and deepened in scope, decision-making has widened beyond the original restricted club, and the WTO has become politicized by governments and infiltrated by anti-market NGOs. His conclusions for the mid-term future were that there should not be anymore WTO global rounds in the future, but only standalone negotiations, that special and differential treatment could not be left undifferentiated, and finally, that there should be a shift of focus from market access issues to rules issues.
Mr. Rengang began his presentation by reminding the audience that his country’s accession negotiations lasted fifteen years. He then discussed how the WTO system has helped China open up to international trade, to the point that its partners are now complaining that China is over-liberalizing, by exporting too much. Mr. Rengang also talked of the WTO system as a non-universal system, as many important countries such as Russia were not included in it, so its rule of law was limited in promoting trade liberalization. With regard to the Doha Round, the conclusion of the negotiations was not foreseen for the near future, so there was a strong probability that unilateral, bilateral and regional agreements were to continue as trade liberalization alternatives. He also discussed China’s policy of reducing tariffs on environment oriented imports before an actual binding agreement was reached in the negotiations, as a measure to maintain the coherence of the system.
Professor Messerlin pointed out that liberalization in the past few years happened mostly on a unilateral basis. He discussed the lack of leadership in international trade, and explained it through a more hostile public opinion, stronger anti-trade lobbies, and more absent businesses.
Mr. Abbott talked about regional agreements and the threat they represent to the multilateral system. He argued that the WTO system was not a universal one, pointing out to the exceptions provided in article 24, the provisions for weavers and the special regimes for developing countries. He therefore concluded that one should not be troubled if such great quantity of regional agreements are being negotiated. With regard to regional agreements, Mr. Abbott said that they were discriminatory, long-lasting and creating loopholes to WTO rules. He concluded his statement reiterating that it was a good idea to pursue multilateral negotiations and agreements in the future.
Globalization and the WTO Doha Agenda: Impact on Development
Speakers included Mr. Martin Khor, from the Third World Network; Mr. Mehdi Shafaeddin, former Senior Economist at UNCTAD; Ms. Anne Kamau, from the Permanent Mission of Kenya at the UN; H. E. Mr. Oscar Carvallo, Ambassador to the Permanent Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela at the UN; and H. E. Ms. Gail Mathurin, Ambassador to the Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the UN.
The general discussion was centered on the issues contributing to the current deadlock in the Doha negotiations, namely agricultural issues, where developing countries have agreed to cut their tariffs further than in the Uruguay Round; industrial tariffs and the introduction of the Swiss standard formula, which means that developing countries have to reduce their tariffs much more than developed countries; negotiations on services; and the development issues, which have been left for the end of the Round, if time remains.
The discussion focused specifically on the development implications of industrial tariff cuts. It was argued that the contradictions in design and implementation of WTO rules and the inconsistencies between the Doha text and developed countries’ proposals triggered much of the current turmoil in the negotiations. The introduction of the Swiss formula in particular, went against the developing countries’ interests, while serving those of developed countries. The former would be subject to much greater tariff reduction rates, despite the fact that the principal of less than proportional reciprocity was agreed in Hong Kong. This would create significant detrimental long-term effects on the industrialization of developing countries, with no negative effects in the developed world, since industrialization has already occurred there. The developing world, by contrast, suffers from underdevelopment of its industrial sector. Thus, they need to apply higher tariffs to some of their industries, particularly new ones. Or with the low tariffs rates proposed, this will disarm them of an important policy tool for establishing new industries and upgrading old ones. The implications of such low and bound tariffs include the locking of the structure of production of most developing countries into primary commodities, simple resource-based and labor intensive products. The conclusion of the discussion highlighted the fact that development should not be sacrificed for the sake of reaching an agreement in the multilateral arena, nor should developing countries accept to be bullied into unfair trade agreements at the bilateral level.
R. M.
Plenary opening
In his opening speech, Director-General Pascal Lamy, highlighted the numerous occasions where civil society had a real impact on the WTO agenda. These include the 2003 agreement on cheaper medicines for developing countries, and the inclusion of issues such as fisheries subsidies, environmental goods and services, and food aid in the current Doha negotiations. With regard to the ongoing negotiations concerning agricultural and industrial goods, Pascal Lamy seemed very optimistic, stating that « as positions converge on these key subjects, the pace of work is also accelerating on the rest of the Doha agenda ». Finally, to conclude his keynote address, the Director-General stressed the importance of the progress made in the parallel agenda package on Aid-for-Trade.
Her Excellency, Ms. Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland, emphasized the need to keep current Doha negotiations alive, in order to harness globalization, stating that bilateral or regional trade agreements were only second best solutions. She said that the way in which the WTO could contribute to control the phenomenon was precisely through a guarantee of a universal, rule-based and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system, which would be especially in the interest of weaker and poorer nations. Concerning the global economic situation today, Ms Halonen stressed that « all countries have the right to develop and to aim for growth and prosperity ». She also mentioned the growing influence of trade on other non-economic dimensions of development such as the environment, democracy and human rights, and urged the WTO and other international organizations to ensure that their policies are coherent with each other. On the particular issue of sustainable development, Ms Halonen stressed that industrialized countries must continue to take all necessary steps to promote access to environmentally sound technologies for all countries, and show solidarity towards developing countries that address climate change. Finally, Ms Halonen congratulated the positive role the WTO has taken in its Aid for Trade programme, which has seen an expansion of its agenda beyond the narrowly defined technical assistance, and is now supporting developing countries efforts to achieve better competitiveness in world trade.
Ms Olubanke King-Akerele, Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Liberia, said that the topic under discussion was of vital importance to Liberia and to all developing nations around the globe, who have not yet seen the benefits of trade. In this respect, she expressed a rather pessimistic view concerning the Doha negotiations, stating that « recasting the debate and making real progress will be particularly difficult with respect to the full and fair integration of the 50 least developed countries into the multilateral system ». Ms Akerele gave a brief account of her country’s economic situation, and she insisted on the role of trade in solidifying peace in post-conflict situations, and in particular in the Mano River Union Subregion of Liberia, which includes also Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire. Here she has made a reference to the growth circles occurring in South East Asia, as an example of positive developments at the sub regional level, that bring peace and security through infrastructural development. Ms Akerele continued by addressing Liberia’s current process of developing a poverty reduction strategy. With the help of the International Trade Center, Liberia developed a trade road map, which includes a series of supply-chain analysis on products such as coffee, cocoa, rubber, wood products, crafts and spices. What is significant about this, Ms Akerele said, is that « we are bringing to the small people what this business of trade is all about ». She then tackled the question of global governance and the role the WTO played in the construction of such a system. She said that the attacks the WTO received from various actors concentrated mainly on the need for a more balanced decision-making power between rich and poor, and a more egalitarian trade regime. She insisted on the fact that if Doha failed, the international community would have failed the global poor, and she also requested to see the gender dimension provided for in WTO trade matters. Ms Akerele concluded her speech by reminding the public about the urgency of the matters under discussion for « the bottom billion ».
Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, spoke of good news with regard to the goal of reducing global poverty by half by 2015, and attributed much of the credit to the WTO, if the happy outcome was to be met. He gave the examples of China and India as countries of unprecedented sustainable growth and poverty reduction, and said that their successes show why the Millennium Development Goals will be met by 2015. Professor Mahbubani added that the reason of such extraordinary success lies in the fact that China and India « have bought and are implementing the essential WTO vision that both they and the world will be better off by opening and liberalizing their economies, especially in the field of trade ». Nevertheless, he noted that the current impasse in the Doha negotiations came from the loss of faith in trade-liberalization from the traditional champions of liberalization, namely the United States and the European Union, who are afraid of loosing their competitiveness to developing countries like China and India. He qualified this situation as tragic. With respect to this new international context, Professor Mahbubani claimed that the role and responsibility of NGOs had to change dramatically. He urged them to change their attitudes towards globalization, giving the example of China’s strong growth since its entry into the WTO, as evidence of the virtues of trade liberalization. He proceeded to give examples of how globalization is actually helping the poorest people around the world, through cell phones, the use of internet, televisions or education. In his concluding remarks, Professor Mahbubani apologized for his optimistic faith in globalization and reiterated his concern with regard to the increase in trade barriers quietly taking place in America and Europe, a phenomenon which he qualified as « fatal » for the developed countries and the world at large, in building a better world for all.
A Governance Audit for the WTO: Roundtable Discussion on Making Global Trade work for Development
The workshop was divided into two parts, first a joint presentation by Dr. Carolyn Deere, Mr. Mayur Patel and Mr. Arunabha Ghosh, from the Global Trade Governance Project, GEG, Oxford, followed by a roundtable discussion with panelists Mr. Harlem Désir MEP, Vice Chairman of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament; Mr. Faizel Ismail, Head of Delegation to the WTO from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Africa; Mr. Alejandro Jara, WTO Deputy Director-General; H. E. Mr. Mothae Maruping, Ambassador, Permanent representative of Lesotho to the WTO; Mr. Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Chief Executive, ICTSD; H. E. Mr. Guillermo Valles Galmés, Ambassador, Permanent representative of Uruguay to the WTO.
The joint presentation began by establishing a governance audit as a means to shed light on decision-making process in the WTO. The concept was used as a tool to systematically identify the mechanisms for improving the responsiveness of the WTO system to development priorities and sustainability concerns. The presentation focused on three of the eight functions served by the WTO: negotiation, monitoring, and technical assistance and capacity building.
1. The negotiation function, Mr. Mayur Patel:
Mr. Patel spoke of the informal changes occurring in the decision-making process, and in particular of the rising number of developing country coalitions and their inclusion as platforms for joint-representation in the WTO. He said that what was striking about this new trend of coalition bargaining was the unprecedented institutionalization of these groupings. The result of this is that developing countries are enhancing their representation and negotiation capacity, since their delegations are usually relatively small and ill equipped to influence the negotiations. Coalition bargaining has thus allowed them to partially offset their individual constraints through cooperation in informal gathering. Coalitions have also improved access to WTO decision-making by providing developing countries with a foothold in previously exclusive meetings. Finally, a third implication of coalition representation is that it has improved access of many weak states and the internal transparency of some WTO decision-making processes.
2. The monitoring function, Mr. Arunabha Ghosh:
Mr. Ghosh reminded the audience that the Trade Policy Review Mechanism was established in 1989, as a means to increase the collective understanding of members’ policies. Originally, developing countries accepted the TPRM with some exceptions. The TPRM’s activity has grown significantly over the years: almost all countries have undergone a review at least once, 26 of the 32 LDC members have been reviewed, while they received technical assistance since 2000 to conduct their own reviews, and the use of regional reviews has also been introduced, in order to highlight challenges to trade policy from a regional perspective. Nevertheless, the participation of a majority of WTO’s members remains negligible. Mr. Ghosh estimated that an average LDC has participated only in three meetings, and the likelihood that they will ask a question or raise a point is only 2%. The reasons for this may include questions of maintaining preferences with richer trading partners, other meetings of more immediate importance occurring at the same time as the review meetings, or the lack of technical expertise of developing countries to understand the policies of their trading partners and ask pertinent questions. The outcome of this trend is that developing countries remain with few possible avenues to demand any policy correction. The implications for developing countries range from magnified informational problems, to widening information and analysis gaps between small and large developing countries, as well as emergence of developing country coalitions that continue to be constrained by limited technical expertise.
3. The capacity-building function, Dr. Carolyn Deere
Dr. Deere spoke of the broad political consensus with regard to the assistance required by developing countries to maximize the gains of their participation in the WTO. The rationale for the trade-related technical assistance and capacity building program (TACB) was to empower developing countries to engage more effectively in the multilateral trading system so that they reap a fair share of its political and social gains. In this respect, the TACB program focuses on fore core priorities: building supply-side capacity to benefit from new international trade opportunities, supporting the institutional infrastructure to implement WTO agreements, development-oriented legal and policy assistance to revise laws in order to meet WTO obligations, and also supporting strengthened participation in negotiations and decision-making processes. Since 1995, both the scale and the scope for TACB have expanded significantly. Nevertheless, some outstanding challenges remain, related to the fact that TACB is a donor-driven program. The first challenge pertains to the fact that there is a donor control over the resources. Indeed, despite a large increase in funding for TACB since 2002, resources still fall short of that which developing countries actually need to obtain benefits from their WTO participation. There is also an uneven commitment to multilateral TACB initiatives, as developed countries usually prefer bilateral agreements. Furthermore, TACB financing is subject to the vagaries of donor’s changing trade and foreign policy priorities; the reality is that most developed countries allocate resources according to their own national priorities. A second challenge is coordination and ownership constraints at the National level. This includes managing TACB from a host of different donors and dealing with short-term aid instead of long-term investments.
During the roundtable discussion, Ambassador Ismail commented on the importance of coalitions and the need for coherence in the WTO capacity-building process. He also said with regard to the TPRM, that it is also important that developed countries act as they should and respect their obligations vis-à-vis developing countries. Ambassador Maruping also commented on the TPR and said that it was imperative for the WTO to maintain its relevance. Ambassador Valles commented on the purpose of coalition formation, which he said was to establish an agenda that will benefit developing countries, as well as provide information and transparency. Mr. Jara spoke of strengthening negotiation power through coalition building, and suggested that the TPR should be open to the public in order to improve it. He also stated that the deficit in subsidies notification affects the developing countries in upholding their rights, and that capacity-building lacks resources. Lastly, Mr. Désir suggested to set up a parliamentary assembly in the WTO in order to facilitate understanding between the North and the South.
A series of questions were then taken up from the audience.
Restoring Morality to the Global Market
The workshop was made up of moderator Mr. Jean-Pierre Lehmann, professor of international political economy at the IMD and founding Director of The Evian Group; Mr. Ravi Kanth Devarakonda, Geneva editor of the Washington Trade Daily and Deccan Herald; Ms. Ximena Escobar de Nogales, Deputy Director and senior economic counselor at CASIN; H. E. Ms. Gail Mathurin, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Jamaica; Mr. Aldo Matteuci, Senior fellow at the DiploFoundation.
Mr. Lehmann made some introductory remarks. He said that the global market economy hosts many injustices, and that the Doha Round was an opportunity to redress some of these injustices. He also commented on the importance of building coalitions in order to restore morality to the global market.
Mr. Matteuci’s presentation focused on the laws that govern the market, and not vice-versa. He reminded the audience that even Adam Smith’s economical theory of the invisible hand contained an element of morality to it.
Ms. Escobar de Nogales talked about consumer behavior. In particular, she focused on the importance of consumer behavior for developing countries and stated that the consumer must have an active morality in order to make a difference on the global market.
Mr. Devarakonda concentrated on the issue of patented drugs. He affirmed that two billion people lack access to essential medication at the moment, but the market was the ultimate arbitrator of price setting. This caused a moral dilemma, in the sense that people are dying because they do not have access to medicines, but these are protected by patents in Western countries in order to stimulate innovation. The current system of Compulsory License Mechanism tries to deal with this issue, but developing countries are sometimes prevented from using it, due to pressure from the drugs industry. So the question remained on how could one redress morality in this context. Mr. Devarakonda suggested to set up a global public pact, that would provide a code of conduct for extreme situations, where the market alone cannot be the sole decider.
Ambassador Mathurin’s intervention was concerned with who’s morality should guide the global market.
A series of questions were then taken up from the audience.
Coherent Strategies for Trade Liberalization – Bottom-up policies regional agreements and the WTO-system compatibility
The Session was composed of Moderator Mr. Frederik Erixon, Director of the ECIPE; Dr. Razeen Sally, Director ECIPE; Professor Patrick Messerlin, form the Groupe Economie Mondiale, Sciences po Paris; Mr. Huang Rengang, Minister Counsellor of China to the WTO; and Mr. Roderick Abbott, former Deputy Director-General of the WTO.
Mr Erixon made some opening remarks by asking whether there were some direct or indirect effects of different types of liberalization on the WTO system and what could one make of the new phenomenon of autonomous liberalization.
Dr Sally discussed medium-term strategic issues, including the multilateralization of regional agreements, the usefulness of having some rules agenda, as well as the acceleration of unilateral liberalization, particularly in Asia. He noted three changes from the GATT to the WTO: the agenda has broadened and deepened in scope, decision-making has widened beyond the original restricted club, and the WTO has become politicized by governments and infiltrated by anti-market NGOs. His conclusions for the mid-term future were that there should not be anymore WTO global rounds in the future, but only standalone negotiations, that special and differential treatment could not be left undifferentiated, and finally, that there should be a shift of focus from market access issues to rules issues.
Mr. Rengang began his presentation by reminding the audience that his country’s accession negotiations lasted fifteen years. He then discussed how the WTO system has helped China open up to international trade, to the point that its partners are now complaining that China is over-liberalizing, by exporting too much. Mr. Rengang also talked of the WTO system as a non-universal system, as many important countries such as Russia were not included in it, so its rule of law was limited in promoting trade liberalization. With regard to the Doha Round, the conclusion of the negotiations was not foreseen for the near future, so there was a strong probability that unilateral, bilateral and regional agreements were to continue as trade liberalization alternatives. He also discussed China’s policy of reducing tariffs on environment oriented imports before an actual binding agreement was reached in the negotiations, as a measure to maintain the coherence of the system.
Professor Messerlin pointed out that liberalization in the past few years happened mostly on a unilateral basis. He discussed the lack of leadership in international trade, and explained it through a more hostile public opinion, stronger anti-trade lobbies, and more absent businesses.
Mr. Abbott talked about regional agreements and the threat they represent to the multilateral system. He argued that the WTO system was not a universal one, pointing out to the exceptions provided in article 24, the provisions for weavers and the special regimes for developing countries. He therefore concluded that one should not be troubled if such great quantity of regional agreements are being negotiated. With regard to regional agreements, Mr. Abbott said that they were discriminatory, long-lasting and creating loopholes to WTO rules. He concluded his statement reiterating that it was a good idea to pursue multilateral negotiations and agreements in the future.
Globalization and the WTO Doha Agenda: Impact on Development
Speakers included Mr. Martin Khor, from the Third World Network; Mr. Mehdi Shafaeddin, former Senior Economist at UNCTAD; Ms. Anne Kamau, from the Permanent Mission of Kenya at the UN; H. E. Mr. Oscar Carvallo, Ambassador to the Permanent Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela at the UN; and H. E. Ms. Gail Mathurin, Ambassador to the Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the UN.
The general discussion was centered on the issues contributing to the current deadlock in the Doha negotiations, namely agricultural issues, where developing countries have agreed to cut their tariffs further than in the Uruguay Round; industrial tariffs and the introduction of the Swiss standard formula, which means that developing countries have to reduce their tariffs much more than developed countries; negotiations on services; and the development issues, which have been left for the end of the Round, if time remains.
The discussion focused specifically on the development implications of industrial tariff cuts. It was argued that the contradictions in design and implementation of WTO rules and the inconsistencies between the Doha text and developed countries’ proposals triggered much of the current turmoil in the negotiations. The introduction of the Swiss formula in particular, went against the developing countries’ interests, while serving those of developed countries. The former would be subject to much greater tariff reduction rates, despite the fact that the principal of less than proportional reciprocity was agreed in Hong Kong. This would create significant detrimental long-term effects on the industrialization of developing countries, with no negative effects in the developed world, since industrialization has already occurred there. The developing world, by contrast, suffers from underdevelopment of its industrial sector. Thus, they need to apply higher tariffs to some of their industries, particularly new ones. Or with the low tariffs rates proposed, this will disarm them of an important policy tool for establishing new industries and upgrading old ones. The implications of such low and bound tariffs include the locking of the structure of production of most developing countries into primary commodities, simple resource-based and labor intensive products. The conclusion of the discussion highlighted the fact that development should not be sacrificed for the sake of reaching an agreement in the multilateral arena, nor should developing countries accept to be bullied into unfair trade agreements at the bilateral level.
R. M.
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