CARIBBEAN URGES DEVELOPMENT AGENDA FOR SMALL, VULNERABLE COUNTRIES AT WTO MINISTERIAL

CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – The Sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial got underway today, amidst mounting concern over the prospects for a successful outcome for the six-day meeting in Hong Kong.  At issue is the impasse over concessions in Agriculture, the principle stumbling block for progress in negotiations to date.
Caribbean Trade Ministers gathered in Hong Kong for this week’s meeting remain deeply concerned with the current state of affairs in global trade talks.  They are particularly concerned with how ‘development issues’ are finding expression in on-going talks.
Ahead of the WTO Ministerial, the Caribbean cautioned against any further slippage in addressing ‘development issues’.  At a recent summit of Caribbean Leaders that took place in Barbados December 8, “deep disappointment” was expressed over the limited progress that has been achieved in this area in negotiations to date (see Declaration of Bridgetown, at www.crnm.org).  Leaders stressed the importance of infusing a “development dimension” in WTO talks.  They also characterized recent WTO rulings on Bananas and Sugar as having a devastating impact on the Region, noting that these “unilateral and unprincipled EU decisions on sugar and bananas” will impact negatively on the social and economic development of the Caribbean.
Caribbean Trade Ministers today emphasized that the extent to which the goals and mandates of the Doha Development Agenda are being achieved in WTO talks must be judged by how vulnerable developing countries are treated.  Vulnerable because of their levels of poverty and/or small size, issues germane to such countries must be a priority of the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial meeting. This was the message Caribbean Trade Ministers relayed to WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, in a bilateral meeting with him today.
Doha Round negotiations have so far failed to address the plight of the WTO’s most vulnerable Members. Dissatisfied with this state of affairs, Director General of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal, who is heading a team of RNM officials at the Hong Kong Ministerial, said “this Ministerial meeting is an opportunity to immediately and meaningfully take action to correct a situation which is both economically untenable and politically unacceptable.  Anything less will be a clear signal to those small, vulnerable countries committed to the negotiations that there is a lack of will to address issues germane to them, and to those that question the WTO process it will be viewed as an affirmation of their cynicism.”