WTO Director-General, also addressing meeting, says"heavy political lifting" required to resolve Doha round impasse
The much-publicized suspension of the Doha round of trade negotiations "hurts the world´s poorest most acutely," Supachai Panitchpadki, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), told the organization´s governing body this morning.
Saying that "it is the common responsibility of all countries to demonstrate the renewed political will and additional flexibilities" necessary to resume and conclude the trade talks, Mr. Supachai said the current suspension, which began in late July, "sends a negative signal on the future of the world economy and might encourage a resurgence of protectionism."
The further opening of industrialized country markets to exports from the world´s poorer nations is critical if they are to raise the living standards of their citizens and halve world poverty by 2015, as called for by the Millennium Development Goals, he said.
Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), also spoke at the opening session of UNCTAD´s Trade and Development Board, saying "It is important to create a space for quiet discussions, hard reflections, and discrete bridge building. . . so the knot of the problem" -- what to do about agriculture subsidies -- "can be narrowed."
Resumption of Doha negotiations "only makes sense if the positions of the main players change," Mr. Lamy said, "and this will not happen without heavy political lifting at home. We now are at the stage where most of the negotiating by trade negotiators has to take place at home."
Mr. Lamy went on to say "I´m convinced. . . that the result of this process will be an acknowledgement that there is no acceptable alternative to a successful completion of the round."
After several Government representatives spoke of the costs of the stalled negotiations, Mr. Lamy added that "The cost of failure is unfairly distributed" and that the world´s smaller and less wealthy nations would lose the most from further delay or a collapse of the Doha round.
In his address, the WTO Director-General also commented on UNCTAD´s 2006 Trade and Development Report, saying that while, as the report contends, there should be no blind adherence to free markets by Governments of developing countries seeking to nurture their economies, "there also should be no blind adherence to Governments doing pretty much anything, and no blind adherence to protectionism."
The report calls for active involvement by the Governments of the world´s poorer nations in preparing their economies for broad-based growth and international competition, including, when necessary, temporary protection of nascent industries. The report also says that such Governments should not be so restricted by the rules and regulations of international trade agreements that they lack the "policy space" to do what´s best for their economies.
In his opening address to the meeting, Secretary-General Supachai called for the establishment of a global network of think tanks specialized in development policy advocacy and strategy-setting, saying that UNCTAD could benefit from such a group, which would not be limited to general academia and research institutions. Think tanks would be based in developing and developed countries alike, he said. Establishing such a network was one of the recommendations of a Panel of Eminent Persons appointed by the Secretary-General last year to suggest new directions for UNCTAD´s work, and Mr. Supachai said he would seek -- with the help of member countries -- to implement the recommendation this year.
Mr. Supachai also said UNCTAD "must tackle difficult issues in a fresh and clear-headed manner" and "push beyond current boundaries" in its efforts to advance trade and development issues.
The Trade and Development Board (TDB) will meet through 10 October, concluding after a Mid-Term Review of UNCTAD´s activities under the programme of work set by the 2004 UNCTAD XI conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Mid-Term Review will include a high-level policy dialogue -- in which Government officials of the ministerial level and higher participate -- from 4-6 October.
