New Delhi, August 1
Developing countries, led by India and Brazil, have gained marginal victory at the WTO when the EU, the US and other developed countries agreed to sign the deal leading to slashing of billions of dollars in farm subsidies even though a date has yet to be fixed.
The accord, which restores the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) credibility by putting its troubled Doha Round back on track, was hailed as “historic” by exhausted negotiators.
But commentators and analysts said the deal only a small first step and that many of the toughest decisions on lowering barriers to international commerce were still to be taken.
After five days of wrangling, the WTO’s 147-member states gavelled a framework laying down the guidelines for the round, which has been in trouble since the collapse of talks almost a year ago in Cancun, Mexico, when no deal on subsidies was found.
“This is a historic moment for this organisation,” WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi told a news conference after the adopting of the pact at a late-night session at the WTO’s headquarters.
The hard-won deal on a series of contentious trade issues, from farm reform to the launch of negotiations on a new customs code, puts the Doha Round firmly back on track, officials said. Failure in Geneva could have delayed further trade liberalisation for years.
Rich nations welcomed the deal, which would commit them — once the round is completed — to rein in the huge subsidies they lavish on farmers and give developed nations better access to their farm markets.
Millions of farmers in India can also heave a sigh of relief as the signed deal will enable the government to take measures to safeguard their interests, while delaying the entry of agriculture imports in the country. At the same time, the developed nations have also succeeded to stall the move of developing countries forcing them end the huge farm subsidies “immediately.”
Agricultural economists lament that despite stiff pressure from the Asian and African countries, the EU, Japan and the US agreed to reduce domestic support to the farm sector just by 20 per cent in the first year as a down payment. It has dashed the hopes of developing nations to “capture their markets,” in their future.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, who had been accusing the NDA government of compromising country’s interest at WTO earlier, said the agreed framework has met India’s key demands aimed at preserving country’s domestic policy space by providing for special products, special safeguard mechanism and special and differential treatment in respect of market access.
The framework, he said, sets out the guidelines for further negotiations under the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations encompassing the key areas of agriculture, non-agriculture market access, services and trade facilitation.
Deferring the deadline for completion of Doha Round of trade talks from January 1, 2005, the next WTO Ministerial meeting will now be held in December, 2005, in Hong Kong for concluding the final deal.
