Small, Vulnerable States At Periphery Of WTO, Says Harris

SMALL, VULNERABLE STATES AT PERIPHERY OF WTO, SAYS HARRIS CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – The Chairperson of the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference met with three key Caribbean Trade Ministers in the Region this week, amid dire warnings that a series of high-level meetings in the coming days needed to spur momentum in flagging global trade talks or efforts to put a deal together in time for the year-end Ministerial would be at risk of failure. Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology of Hong Kong, China Mr. John Tsang met with Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Hon. Clement Rohee (November 1), Barbados’ Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Dame Billie Miller (November 2), and Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Hon. K.D. Knight (November 4). Secretary Tsang’s visit took place ahead of a mid-November deadline, by which time a draft Ministerial Declaration should be ready. But given the on-going stalemate in Agriculture, and that the fate of other negotiating areas depends on movement on this core issue, it is difficult for most of the Negotiating Group Chairs to come up with texts, prompting some to call for lowering the level of ambition. The WTO Director General, Pascal Lamy, has again appealed to Members to show flexibility. Australia, Brazil, the European Union, India and the United States are slated to meet at Ministerial-level in London Monday (November 7), and Geneva-based negotiations will follow into the week. The Trade Ministers will attempt to build bridges in the divisive but linchpin issue of farm trade. A proposal by the EU in this area in recent days, touted as ambitious, failed to provide impetus to lacklustre Agriculture negotiations. Last week, the EU proposed cuts in its average farm import tariffs that fell short of what the United States and some other countries had wanted. The stalled agricultural trade talks pit the US against the EU, but also involve G20 nations like Brazil and India that have a keen interest in opening up agricultural markets. Pressure is mounting on the EU to show more flexibility in farm trade talks, at a time when the European Commission is facing stiff opposition from some of its Member States to make any further concessions. For its part, the Commission has continued to call for a shift in focus to other areas, like services and non-agricultural market access; while other countries in the so-called ‘Five Interested Parties’ (FIPS) group have down-played the likelihood of such a shift in focus, before more progress can be made in Agriculture talks. The Director General of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal, participated in today’s meeting between Minister Knight and Secretary Tsang, and emphasized that small economies must not be marginalized in the Ministerial decision making process in Hong Kong. He cautioned that for a successful Ministerial, all Members must feel that some important aspect of their negotiating agenda has been meaningfully addressed. “The priority issues for small, vulnerable countries in the Caribbean are: a) small economies; b) special and differential treatment; c) sensitive products, including those under preferential arrangements; and, d) support in the form of development financing, to complement liberalization under the WTO,” Ambassador Bernal noted. Secretary Tsang’s visit provided an opportunity to exchange views on the WTO’s December Hong Kong Ministerial, and discuss the status of WTO Doha Round talks, ahead of this decisive Ministerial. He visited the Region at a time of mounting uncertainty amongst the smallest and most vulnerable Caribbean Members of the WTO over the benefits to be derived from being a part of the WTO system, and at a time when WTO talks have lost credibility with these countries. Below is an op ed by Hon. Timothy Harris, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, St. Kitts and Nevis, that captures these concerns. SMALL, VULNERABLE STATES AT PERIPHERY OF WTO by Hon. Timothy Harris, PhD Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade St. Kitts and Nevis The Doha Development Round promised the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) smallest and most vulnerable Members – like St. Kitts and Nevis – a more equitable trading arrangement, which would support their right of development. The developmental agenda promised to advance special and differential treatment for small, vulnerable countries like ours, and to put special supportive mechanisms in place. The promise of a development agenda is still elusive, as we approach the important WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting in mid-December. Small, vulnerable states are still at the periphery of WTO decision making, short changed as they are in human capacity and negotiating capacity their active and meaningful participation in decision making mechanisms is circumscribed and constrained. We are indeed concerned that the developed countries with plenteous resources are too self centred and arrogant to give meaningful attention to “developmental concerns”. They having arrived seem content to have us confined to the status of consumers of their products. The developed countries have failed to make meaningful concessions in subsidy reductions of their agricultural products and to provide adequate access to their markets for products and services of small, vulnerable countries. Secretary Tsang’s visit to our Region was a welcome one. We must let him know though that the WTO, particularly on its rulings/decisions on sugar and bananas, does not appear as a reliable friend of small, vulnerable countries. Settling disputes under the WTO dispute mechanism is too expensive for small, vulnerable countries. Even as in the case of Antigua and Barbuda, when small states obtain a favourable ruling, rich countries may yet turn this into a pyrrhic victory, by delaying implementation of the ruling. Perhaps if Secretary Tsang’s visit leads to real soul searching on the part of key WTO decision-makers and serious efforts are put into reviving the WTO’s development agenda, such a visit would have been meaningful. If the visit was mainly an effort to proselytize on the status quo, once again the WTO would have confirmed its agenda is not in our best interest. In the case of St. Kitts and Nevis, our key merchandise export (sugar) had to be discontinued this year, because the EU’s price cuts proposed in response to Australia, Brazil, and Thailand’s WTO challenge to the EU/ACP sugar regime made it crystal clear that we could not survive in a hostile market for sugar and the limits of scale preordained by our small size were not conducive to our being a viable player. The consequence of our decision to exit sugar has been far reaching. About 6% of the working population has been severed in one blow, and EC$44 million in severance payments had to be found by the state, and 1,500 former sugar workers must now readjust to life after sugar. In these circumstances, it is unsurprising that ordinary people feel themselves victims of the liberalizing trade regime promoted by the WTO. Not surprising too, Members are losing faith in the WTO’s promise to promote fair trade, economic growth, sustainable development and a system of rules dedicated to open and fair competition, in an environment plagued by bitter splits that threaten a successful outcome for the WTO’s year-end Ministerial. The discussions with Secretary Tsang this week revealed that he is striving to make a success of the Hong Kong Ministerial, in the face of tremendous odds and unknowns facing beleaguered trade talks. Because of the fixation on Agriculture, however, the rest of the negotiating agenda is being held hostage. Given the persistent and pervasive impasse in Agriculture, there are serious doubts as to whether ‘development issues’ are salvageable, with the Hong Kong Ministerial just six weeks away, and with little sign that there is going to be a breakthrough in Agriculture talks anytime soon. In this environment, development issues are not being front-loaded on the negotiating agenda as they should be, to the detriment of the WTO’s smallest Members. This troubled round of WTO talks needs to salvage development, or it will be in serious jeopardy of failing its most vulnerable Members.