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Health, food security issues may divide nations at Doha

If core labour standards and environment led to collapse of Seattle meeting in 1999, it could be public health and food security concerns that may sow the seed of discord between developed and developing countries at the WTO ministerial meeting in Doha in November, India cautioned on Thursday.

Attacking United States and European Union for their attempt to push ahead a new round of negotiations, Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran opposed any move to 'overload' the agenda with new issues without resolving implementation concerns of the existing WTO agreements.

The recent US-EU decision at Geneva to press for the so-called new "comprehensive or balanced" round at Doha did not augur well for WTO as it implied that the state of "imbalance and inequities" will remain for the developing countries, Maran said.

"Such imbalances will become worse and intolerable if we agree for a new round," he warned and said developing countries have already paid a price by agreeing to some of the contentious issues in the Uruguay round of trade negotiations.

"The developing countries at the end of Uruguay round have paid a price. A down payment in the form of agreeing to TRIPS, TRIMS and Services. Now they want us to pay for the second time for which many developing countries are not ready," he said.

In an obvious attack on the new US-EU move to press for the new round, Maran said: "People are talking as though WTO has no work at all. There are mandated negotiations which contain about 200 items."

In an obvious attack on the new US-EU move to press for the new round, Maran said: "People are talking as though WTO has no work at all. There are mandated negotiations which contain about 200 items."

"The Uruguay round agreement mandates that every two years there should be a ministerial meeting. It does not mean every two years there should be a new round. Therefore what we suggest is in the interest of WTO, it should not convert itself into an imperium or World policeman for global trade," the minister said.

As the WTO already has a heavy built-in agenda, the ministerial meeting at Doha should devote itself to an in-depth review and stock taking, which is important to the multilateral trading system itself, he said.

Emphasising that implementation issues should be resolved 'upfront', Maran said, warning that developing countries would resist any move to push down the throat any discussion on new issues before they were 'ripe' for discussion.

Such moves at Doha will create 'heart-burning' among developing countries which may object to the proceedings because they will create 'onerous and intolerable' responsibilities.

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