• Dr. Supachai urges aid for trade;
• Weeks before Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, Pascal Lamy pinpoints areas for cooperation between UNCTAD and WTO
Development is the common denominator of all the ongoing trade negotiations, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy told the Trade and Development Board (TDB) this morning. The negotiations are slated to conclude in time for the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, to be held this December in Hong Kong.
Mr. Lamy, addressing the Board during its review of developments and issues in the post-Doha work programme of particular concern to developing countries, said that his organization and UNCTAD would cooperate in their work on special and differential treatment (SDT), erosion of preferences and aid for trade to be granted developing countries.
Representatives of the regional groups all stressed the need to maintain SDT in order to meet the needs of developing countries in the areas of development, financing and trade. Trade was not an end in itself, they said, but rather a means for promoting development. Tariff and non-tariff barriers should be progressively reduced and then eliminated altogether, several speakers said, with a view to restoring the balance of global grade. The discussion, in which numerous representatives of UNCTAD Member States participated, continued throughout the day.
In a statement read out on his behalf by Lakshmi Puri, Director of UNCTAD´s Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, said the debate was a good opportunity for a frank discussion in a non-negotiating environment to discuss the negotiations and their development linkages. The Doha Round was about setting the rules of a new trade and development paradigm for the next 10 years or more, and about reaching the millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015.
Developing countries represented a "new frontier" for world economic and trade expansion, he said. All countries had a common interest in the success of the Doha work programme, the realization of its core development agenda and the reinforcement of the multilateral trading system.
Post-Doha
To make the Doha Round a success, a "Doha-plus" trade-enabling development cooperation agenda was needed, Dr. Supachai said. That would involve helping meet the adjustment costs, including those arising from the expiration of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, loss of fiscal revenue, and preference erosion. Aid for trade, in addition to aid for development, was particularly relevant for the LDCs and small, vulnerable economies. UNCTAD would continue to develop project proposals with developing countries and the donor community that addressed those countries´ needs at the national, regional and multilateral levels. Through its research and policy analysis, intergovernmental consensus-building and technical assistance and capacity-building, UNCTAD sought to play a complementary role in relation to the Doha work programme. Dr. Supachai recalled the joint efforts carried out by UNCTAD, the WTO and the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC) in developing trade capacities in African countries under the JITAP programme, the Integrated Framework for LDCs, and helping developing countries in the process of accession to the WTO.
Mr. Lamy said it was crucial to "maximize the development value" of each sector under negotiation and of the Round as a whole. Development was not among the problems that could be solved prior to Hong Kong, but the common denominator of all areas under negotiation. Developing countries accounted for over 75% of the WTO´s membership, he recalled. Thus, the economic interests and weight of these countries was at the heart of the Doha development agenda and of the WTO itself. The Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference represented the best and perhaps the last chance for the international community to rebalance the world trading system in favour of the interests of developing countries.
Most of the positive development outcomes would come from three areas under negotiation, he continued: agriculture, services and non-agricultural market access. It was in those three areas that the outcomes would be the most visible. In agriculture, the decision to eliminate export subsidies paid to developed-country producers was an important step, but more progress was needed. Agriculture held great potential for providing enhanced export opportunities. As to non-agricultural market access, the challenge was to find a formula that was effective, transparent, equitable and incorporated appropriate SDT for developing countries. There was positive interest in enhanced market access, including by seeking the reduction of tariff peaks.
SDT was a key area for developing countries, Mr. Lamy said, and the relevant provisions thus needed to be made more effective. He was personally committed to taking that work programme forward. He also reaffirmed the need to find consensus on ways to enhance the Integrated Framework for LDCs.
Common areas of work
Common areas of work existed between UNCTAD and the WTO, Mr. Lamy said, within the framework of the negotiations on the Doha work programme. UNCTAD should help developing countries to better define the scope of application of the sort of SDT from which they could benefit in order to conduct their national development policy. Periodic examination should be conducted of the waivers granted them under SDT in order to ensure that the objectives of their implementation had been attained.
With regard to tariff preferences, the international community was confronted by a contradiction, he went on. On the one hand, it recognized the need to reduce tariffs, but on the other it also recognized that they were a tool of development. In that context, UNCTAD should look closely at the question of rules of origin.
Aid for trade should not be viewed as a substitute for the trade benefits expected from the negotiations, he said.
In its review of developments and issues in the post-Doha work programme of particular concern to developing countries, the Board had before it a document prepared by the UNCTAD secretariat (TD/B/52/8) that covered recent developments in, and implications for developing countries of, multilateral trade negotiations under the WTO´s Doha work programme since the adoption of the "July Package" of August 2004.
