The Trade and Development Board on October 8 discussed "developments and issues in the post-Doha work programme of particular concern to developing countries."
The review was frank and constructive. There was consensus that trade was an engine of growth and development, and several delegations said the multilateral trading system (MTS) could make a significant contribution to realizing development gains and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Doing that, however, required flanking policies and flexibility to adequately pace and sequence liberalization. Global trade continued to grow, and many countries were able to benefit from this expansion. Nonetheless, some countries continued to be marginalized, particularly least developed countries (LDCs) and sub-Saharan African countries, and the gains from trade liberalization were not evenly distributed among countries.
The Doha negotiations seemed to be at a critical juncture. While recognizing the time constraints facing the round, many participants stressed the need to "get the content right" and secure adequate development dividends in the negotiated outcome. That required positive engagement and flexibility by all, with leadership from the major trading nations. A successful conclusion to the round was essential; the risks of failure included greater recourse to regional and bilateral initiatives, increased unilateralism, resurgent protectionism and trade disputes, and negative implications for the world economy, the MTS, and growth in developing countries.
It was pointed out that the Doha round should address the diverse concerns and interests of developing countries. These included new and enhanced market access and entry opportunities for developing countries in agriculture, manufacturing and services, particularly modes 4 and 1. Other key deliverables included full duty-free and quota-free market access for LDCs, with transparent and simple rules of origin; specific and ambitious solutions for cotton; more discipline on trade-distorting sanitary and phytosanitary standards and technical barriers to trade; adequate policy autonomy and space for economic governance, including through effective and operational special and differential treatment and less-than-full reciprocity; and international solidarity measures to build competitive supply capacities, including services and trade-related infrastructure in developing countries, particularly through the Aid for Trade initiative. The need to make substantial additional and predictable Aid for Trade funding available to all developing countries that needed it and the need for effective implementing mechanisms were stressed. UNCTAD was called upon to contribute substantially to that initiative.
Participants stressed the centrality of agriculture. With regard to non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations, most participants stressed the need to fully take into account the agreed principles of less-than-full reciprocity and a comparable degree of ambition and balance in agriculture and NAMA. Many expressed concern over the proposed level of liberalization in NAMA for developing countries as leading to de-industrialization, while others said it was important to create real and substantial market access and trade opportunities. Participants noted that a successful conclusion of the round necessitated a commensurate level of progress in other areas of negotiations, including services, rules, trade facilitation and the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). A robust outcome in services was considered particularly important by some participants. UNCTAD´s comprehensive work on services was found to be highly valuable and should be further strengthened and prioritized in the context of UNCTAD XII.
In view of the recent proliferation of bilateral and regional trade agreements, many participants reaffirmed the value of the MTS and the most favoured nation principle, and the importance of multilateralism in trade governance. North-South regional trade agreements, where developed countries had greater bargaining power, had often resulted in "WTO-plus" commitments. Furthermore, many key issues could only be dealt with in WTO multilateral negotiations.
Several participants said UNCTAD should continue its policy-oriented research and analysis on trade negotiation issues affecting developing countries and related technical cooperation and capacity-building work, and reaffirm and strengthen its catalytic role in trade negotiations.
Technical cooperation activities
All delegations stressed the importance of technical cooperation as one of the three pillars of UNCTAD´s work, and the need for increased linkages and coherence between the pillars. They also agreed that UNCTAD needed stable, long-term and predictable funding and programming, combined with better control of the implementation of programmes and projects, as well as results-oriented management.
The secretariat was asked to provide member States with more detailed information on requests for technical cooperation and their follow-up, the findings of the interdivisional project review committee on technical cooperation, and the technical cooperation activities of the Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes that would result from the rethinking of its strategic approach, consolidation and synchronization.
