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World trade cannot be a one-way street: Maran

Asserting that world trade cannot look like a 'one-way street', Union Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran on Thursday came out in favour of creating more opportunities for negotiations for the developing countries to enable them to decide on the new world trade agreement.

"The world trade road is normally blocked from the south, though you could drive down it from the north," he said while addressing the The world trade order after Doha session at the Confederation of Indian Industry partnership summit in Bangalore.

"A system that seems rigged to aid the rich and most competitive countries, will be undermined by the poorest and the least competitive," he added.

Pointing out that the global economic order would not be favourable for the industrialised world, unless the latter also worked for the developing world, Maran said, "we need to evolve a development ethics -- free trade; not coercive trade.

The minister also strongly called for allowing countries to liberalise trade at their own pace. Japan, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan had used tariff barriers to protect domestic industry before gradually dismantling them and the one-size-fits-all approach creates problems the world over, he argued.

Stressing that India would always engage in constructive negotiations, the minister said the developing countries should forge a 'development alliance' after amply demonstrating their unity at the Doha round.

India's stand at the recent Doha round of negotiations was appreciated by the ministers of Mauritius, Oman and Egypt

Maran warned that any attempt to give a new meaning to the words of the Doha work programme that was unrelated to the spirit of the document, would greatly harm the institution itself.

"The future of WTO rests on this," he said adding that there should be safeguards against interpretations or expansions of the negotiating mandate inimical to the developing countries' interests during the discussions.

He said negotiations should be well planned giving sufficient notice and time for countries to examine and respond to issues.

Maran regretted that the developing countries had no effective say or role in the matter of setting agendas for negotiations. There should be closer consultations with all groups of member states to remove the perception that decisions were often taken by the trading majors and then just communicated to other groups.

However, WTO Director General Designate Supachai Panitchpakdi, who spoke just before Maran, had promised that he would wield the baton firmly and squarely and that all member countries would be given adequate opportunities.

Panitchpakdi spelt out four assignments for himself during the period September 2002 to August 2005, which included - strengthening the WTO secretariat, allocating a higher budget for the WTO, completion of the Doha work programme and building up coherence in policy making. He also cautioned that there is a need for serious preparations by the members for the fifth ministerial in Mexico.

Maran pointed out that in the two General Council meetings held in October 2001, many developing countries felt frustrated as the draft declarations did not sufficiently reflect their views.

Maran suggested the use of creating drafting committees to draft all future declarations, which would provide a sense of participation and satisfaction to all members. This was the answer to the pain and anguish felt by the developing countries

"Holding consultations with various groups by themselves do not increase transparency if there cannot be sufficient correlation between what transpires during these consultations and what finally appears as a draft," he reasoned.

Maran recalled that even during discussions that lasted over 38 hours at Doha during November 13 and 14, the developed world produced a draft in the eleventh hour, like a magician producing a rabit out of his hat and proclaimed that it was the final draft.

It contained totally new proposals on environment. "The tactics seems to be to produce a draft at the wee hours and force others to accept that or come nearer to that," he charged.

However, the developed countries had happily exempted themselves when they added to the draft that future negotiations would exempt those countries which were not parties to the multilateral environmental agreements.

"I think it is a setback to the cause of the environment, since hereafter every country every country before opening their pen to sign on any multilateral environment agreement would think twice" he reasoned.

Maran, however, expressed India's commitment to constructively engage in negotiations, provided they are well planned, giving sufficient notice and time for countries to examine and respond to issues.

Calling for greater transparency, Maran said there was need to create certain stable procedures at ministerial conferences and in the Geneva process before such meets.

He called for continuous inputs from the industry especially regarding the problems faced in areas like market access, establishing a presence overseas, movement of professionals and the strategies to promote India's and the developing world's economic development. "We need to adopt to use opportunities furnished by the Doha declaration to promote and further our own economic development and that of other developing countries."

Speaking at the session the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Trade Youssef Boutros Ghali, while conceding that the multilateral system represented by the WTO is the only viable system, pointed out that it had a governance problem.

In a system with over 140 member countries, only 20 to 25 end up being the decision makers. This needs to be addressed.

Two other objectives, which should not be lost sight of, according to Boutros Ghali were - the need to watch regional agreements carefully; and to spend money, even up to $1 billion, in developing technical expertise to analyse the agreements.

Minister for Commerce and Industry, Sultanate of Oman, Maqbool bin Ali bin Sultan stressed on the need for balanced, equitable growth under the WTO, which would reduce agricultural subsidies by developed nations, facilitate transfer of technology, help improve human resources, step up foreign aid and promote the development of the ICE sectors in the developing world.

Minister of Industry and International Trade, Mauritius, J K Cuttaree called for effective South - South co-operation by creating a political group of regional trading blocks to strategise in dealing with future negotiations.

UNI

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