http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/crowdsourced/wto-at-the-crossroads-india-must-ensure-the-doha-mandate-is-not-abandoned-at-nairobi/
WTO at the crossroads: India must ensure the Doha Mandate is not abandoned at Nairobi December 12, 2015, 12:02 AM IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | Edit Page, India | TOI By S Narayanan and Jayant Dasgupta While the ongoing Paris meeting on climate change has captured the attention of the world, WTO’s upcoming 10th MinisterialConference (MC) in Nairobi from December 15 to18 has hardly elicited any interest. This is not surprising, considering the lingering impasse in the Doha Round negotiations at WTO. In November 2001, during the 4th MC at Doha, an ambitious new round of complex negotiations was launched, covering a wide range of subjects like agriculture, environment, industrial tariff, services, anti-dumping and subsidies. The last MC held in Bali was significant in that the first multilateral agreement since the creation of WTO was adopted in the shape of the Trade Facilitation Agreement. The other two notable decisions related to protection from WTO dispute action for public stockholding of food in developing countries and the development of a road map to conclude the Doha Round negotiations by 2017. A major factor for the delay in concluding the Doha Round has been the radically changed stance of the US since 2009, duly supported by other developed countries. Almost all the gateway issues to conclude the Round had been successfully negotiated by the US, EU and other major participants like China and India. However, the Obama administration took the stand that the “world had changed” because of the rapid rise of emerging countries, thus necessitating the renegotiation of all the tentative agreements reached during the Bush administration. An important proviso to this stand was that emerging countries would have to pay significantly more than agreed upon earlier. Another view propounded forcefully by the developed countries was that WTO could not afford to ignore “21st century issues” like competition, investment, government procurement, energy security, labour, environment, global value chains, e-commerce and regulatory coherence. Taken together, these propositions clearly lead to a rejection of the Doha mandate and implicitly call for a fresh mandate to start another Round, comprising perhaps only the new “21st century issues”. This is akin to saying that i will play the game as long as it suits me, if it does not i will abandon it and start another game, with rules of my choosing. Given the wide divergence of views among countries, the outcome at the Nairobi MC is fraught with uncertainty. India, along with other developing countries, stands to lose significantly if the Doha Round were to be abandoned without addressing its core issues, including disciplining of agriculture subsidies and market access in goods and services. Providing market access in agriculture products, especially those which are underpriced because of a high level of subsidies prevalent in developed countries, will damage Indian agriculture further and deepen the distress of our farmers. Moreover, the conclusion of the high ambition TPP agreement and the prospects of quick conclusion of TTIP and TISA, all of which are being negotiated at the initiative of the US, outside WTO, pose a threat to the very relevance of WTO other than as a forum for dispute settlement. In its own interest and in the broader interest of the developing countries, India has to ensure that the Doha Mandate is not abandoned at Nairobi. Yet another danger in the current situation is that developing countries like India may be cajoled into accepting some “21st century issues” for negotiations, without clarity as to the negotiating mandate. India’s stand at Nairobi has to be obviously based on what it perceives to be in its national interest. The western media may try to attack and demoralise India at Nairobi by calling it “obstructionist”. India need not be deterred by such motivated criticism. India and other developing countries attach great importance to WTO since they feel that it is designed to be a rule based system and therefore likely to be more responsive to their interests. They have, hence, the unenviable and daunting task of ensuring that the WTO system continues to remain equitable and responsive to their interests and aspirations. Perhaps the stage at Nairobi would be appropriate for India to try to multilateralise the slogan “sabka sath, sabka vikas”. The writers are former Ambassadors of India to WTO. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
