These talks will be used to hold developing countries into ransom and divide them. Th ewest knows that while talks are stalling, they have been able to come between the developing countries and planted divisions, and in that way we are not in a position to make any progress. SA tried lobbying developing countries aside for talks during the Presuedncey of Thabo Mbeki, but other were won over already and that made it practically impossible to proceed on our own.
The coming generatiions will also still be talking about Doha Round Talks and still trying to figure out as to what went wrong there. Imperialism at its best. On Tue, 31 May 2011 15:02:56 +0200 Dominic Tweedie wrote Sun sets on Doha trade negotiations Donwald Pressly, Business Report, Johannesburg, 31 May 2011 The Doha round of trade negotiations was officially declared dead by Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies yesterday, but he was still hopeful that the developing world would achieve a "plan B" that would ease the trading environment for least-developed countries. There was now a recognition that the "2011 window of opportunity to complete the round is now closed", he said. "While much of the membership is not willing to say the round is over, (even) if the countries work harder and harder and put more muscle into the process, it still would not work," Davies said. Explaining plan B, he said it could include some form of duty-free access to developed economies, some form of aid-for-trade agreement and an end to what he described as "the bedevilled cotton dossier" - trade distorting subsidies provided by rich countries including the US, which particularly affected cotton-producing countries of west Africa. Davies said matters of agricultural trade remained a key area of concern in the negotiations. It was "the most distorted and most inhibiting" of the developmental efforts on the African continent. The US and Europe both stand accused of trade distorting agricultural subsidies. Davies reported that in the next two weeks representatives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community would meet to discuss the process of establishing a free-trade area on the subcontinent embracing 26 countries and 530 million people with a combined gross domestic product of $833 billion (R5.7 trillion). He believed this economic bloc, together with South Africa's inclusion in Brics with Brazil, Russia, India and China, would provide South Africa with added leverage in world trade negotiations. Asked whether this would mean the dropping of inter-state tariff barriers within the region, he said it was too early to "detail the approach". "We do have tariffs in place which affect trade between the different regional economic communities." There was a partial free trade agreement within SADC, he said, with members having either zero-tariff barriers or lower tariffs. Referring to Brics, he said trade with China, for example, showed that most of the top 10 exports from South Africa were minerals, while the Chinese top 10 exports to South Africa were manufactured goods. That needed to change, he argued. From: http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/sun-sets-on-doha-trade-negotiations-1.1076351 [1] -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum [2] for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . Links: ------ [1] http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/sun-sets-on-doha-trade-negotiations-1.1076351 [2] http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum ____________________________________________________________ South Africas premier free email service - www.webmail.co.za Save on insurance with OUTsurance https://www.outsurance.co.za/insurance-quote/?source=webmailmailer&cr=facp11_468x60&cid=221 -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
