A major coalition building initiative is underway amongst the developing countries in order to ensure achievement of development objectives in the ongoing WTO negotiations, with many developing countries agreeing that a high level of cohesion would be required to fulfill the development goals of the Doha agenda. This emerged at a meeting convened recently in Geneva by India and serviced by UNCTAD under a DFID-funded project for India on "Globalization and Trade Strategies".

The meeting addressed the key issues of the Doha Work Programme relating to treatment of development issues and the Road to Cancun, where the 5th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is scheduled in September 2003. The meeting clearly brought out the need for a coordinated approach amongst the developing countries and a clear strategy in respect of their offensive and defensive interests, along with identification of various options in different negotiating scenarios. The Meeting, chaired by India, was attended by trade representatives, ambassadors and capital-based officials from the following countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Senegal, Thailand, Uruguay, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The meeting was also addressed by Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD and Supachai Panitchpakdi, Director-General of WTO.

Calling for progress on both the process and substance of negotiations, the participants have proposed the categorization of issues into three pillars in order to ensure the success of Cancun. These three pillars - covering the issues of substance - which would need to be pursued in a co-ordinated and parallel manner given their inter-linkages are: (i) the core issues of market access; (ii) development issues raised by developing countries; and (iii) issues raised by developed countries.

On the core issues of market access (i.e., agriculture in particular and non-agricultural products, services), the developing countries have called upon the developed countries to provide real market access concessions (i.e., by addressing the issues of tariff peaks and tariff escalations) and remove their trade distorting policies especially in agriculture to enable the developing countries to export their way out of poverty. They have, in particular, urged the developed countries to be mindful of the terms of trade by addressing the issue of non-tariff barriers including technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary & phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures, market entry barriers, restrictive rules of origin and imbalances of rules pertaining to subsidies and anti-dumping.

Trade preferences for developing countries are also being eroded and there is a need to find means both in modalities in WTO and preferential trade agreements to deal with the erosion. Significantly, the developing countries have highlighted the need for addressing problems of small farmers in this regard and suggested that the solution should involve adjustment costs or compensation for losses suffered being met by the preference providing countries rather than by developing countries. In services, the importance of movement of natural persons was reiterated.

On development issues raised by developing countries, such as Special & Differential Treatment (SDT), implementation, TRIPs and Public Health, the participants have said that these issues should be at centre-stage at the WTO negotiations. "Obligations in the agreements have to be subjected to a development audit and SDT should not be dealt with as an after thought. Therefore, if obligations are not development-friendly, they cannot be agreed to. WTO rules would need to be equitable and pro-development and should facilitate development process and not just compliance", they said.

Regarding issues raised by developed countries, such as Singapore issues, environment etc., the participants said that developing countries would have to be careful in considering these issues. Many developing countries questioned the need for multilateral disciplines on the Singapore issues, as the study process was still on and many issues still remained to be clarified.

The negotiations on the Dispute Settlement Mechanism should also be taken seriously by developing countries as an important instrument for seeking redressal.

On the process, the participants noted that the preparatory events in the run up to Cancun include the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) meetings in the WTO in May, June, July and August and the WTO General Council's meetings in May and July, with the expectation that the July meeting would see the emergence of the overall picture and of a document for the WTO Trade Ministers to deal with in Cancun.

India introduced the theme of the development dimension at the meeting, supplemented by the Director of the Division of International Trade in Goods & Services, UNCTAD. Ricupero, giving an overview of conditions affecting trade negotiations and the role of UNCTAD said that "overall it would be a big mistake to postpone the (current) round. This may generate a retreat to classic protectionism, with a danger of replacing the multilateral approach by the proliferation of regional and discriminatory approaches. Some developed countries are not worried about a failure in the multilateral approach as they already have alternatives in bilateral and plurilateral FTAs. Thus, there is urgency to go ahead with the work programme and negotiations and conclude it as scheduled. The only assurance against proliferation of discriminatory RTAs is a strengthening of multilateralism".

Recognising that developing countries need to continually meet to coordinate and consult in view of divergences, Supachai agreed that development must be a primacy rather than an after thought and needed to be pursued clearly with indications of priority.

The participants sought more such consultative meetings for the Geneva and capital based senior officials under the India project, facilitated by UNCTAD to deal with specific subjects, especially those on which there is divergence of views so as to foster convergence of approaches in relation to issues like trade preference, regional trade agreements, TRIPs, geographical indications, special & differential treatment (graduation and differentiation) and in agriculture, the question of special safeguards and special products.

Noting that an issue relating to SDT is the increasing pressure by developed countries on differentiation and graduation among developing countries in specific negotiating areas such as modalities for liberalisation in non-agricultural products, the participants felt that this could lead to a further fragmentation of approach among developing countries and, therefore, these were pitfalls to be aware of. The meeting also suggested that UNCTAD should assist the developing countries to narrow their differences with its analyses on these key issues in the run up to Cancun.