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Several developing countries back India; setback to US, EU

Attempts by United States and European Union to bulldoze developing countries to agree to a new round of negotiations received a major setback with several developing nations joining India in opposing it in the plenary of World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference.

"India is not alone in opposing the new issues, nor is it isolated," a WTO spokesman said after making an assessment of the trends at the ministerial conference on the third day Sunday but added there was a movement forward from Seattle.

The spokesman told Indian newspersons that from the developing countries point of view a lot of ground has been covered on implementation issues and US and EU have agreed to resolve upfront 41 of the 93 concerns of the developing nations.

They are willing to negotiate the remaining when the new round would be launched, he added.

From the developed countries' viewpoint, he said the forward movement was on environment as now all countries were willing to discuss the issue though not agreeable to negotiate, which by itself is a positive development as one could not have imagined this to happen after Seattle.

WTO members outlined their initial views on the draft texts but showed no major shifts from positions taken earlier in the preparatory process.

Friends of Chair selected by the conference were conducting consultations on agriculture, implementation, environment, rule-making, new issues and TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights).

It is not yet clear how long the Friends of Chair process will go on but so far talks were going on smoothly and members were already engaging in "some give and take", WTO spokesman said without indicating which way they were proceeding.

On new issues of investment, competiton policy, government procurement and trade facilitation, India and South Asian countries besides several African countries have bluntly said that they were unacceptable to them.

Latin American countries have expressed more nuanced reservations. The EU, Chile, Costa Rica, Japan and Korea called for more ambitious language on investment and other Singapore issues.

Canada's international Trade Minister Pierre Petttigrew, who heads the friends of the chair on new issues admitted that his consultations had revealed no flexibility on the part of those who opposed to investment negotiations in particular.

Others commented that this issue has become one on which developing countries are taking a solid and united stand.

On rule making, whose committee is headed by South African Trade Minister Alee Erwin, the United States remained under pressure from domestic constituencies not to weaken its trade remedy laws or to put anti-dumping up for renegotiations or clarification.

Developing countries continued call for disciplining of anti-dumping actions and called for stronger language on strengthening special and diffrential treatment rules. Japan and Korea said anti-dumping was indispensable component of future negotiations. Developing countries

Like Minded Group, which included India and Pakistan besides several other developing countries were resisting both tariff negotiations and talks on new issues and major industrialised countries to have serious difficulties in the area of implementation.

In addition, the crucial issue of TRIPS and public health are yet to be tackled.

AGRICULTURE

On agriculture, the committee is headed by Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry. Member countries have reiterated their well known positions.

EU said the draft language on export subsidy went too far. Developing countries called for a change in the text to address tariff peaks and escalation in agricultural trade, as well as the creation of a development box on agricultural support measure. The US reportedly opposed this.

Independently of the Friends of the Chair process, Switzerland held an informal meeting on non-trade concerns with a diverse group of industrialised and developing countries.

According to reports, these countries were all in favour of creating a development box under the agreement on agriculture that would shield developing countries' subsidies and other support measures targeted at ensuring food security and rural development goals.

There were some indications that CAIRNS group members Indonesia and the four Mercousur countries, as well as China and Russia were also backing the development box but this could not be verified.

IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

On implementation issues, WTO spokesman said some developing countries indicated that the draft implementation decision could be acceptable provided the overall context was right. In contrast, the US and Canada said they had political difficulties in accepting the textiles concessions outlined in the decision.

Some differences also emerged between developing countries with regard to extending transition periods under the TRIPS and TRIMS agreements for some but not all developing countries.

Analysts pointed out the whole discussions seemed to be "opaque" and battle lines have clearly been drawn with US, EU and Japan on one side and India and several other countries on the other side.

China, which became the 143rd member of WTO on Saturday has however made it clear it would be supporting a new round but in future it is expected that it would go more with developing countries than with developed countries on some of the contentious issues.

As of now the situation is still fluid but indication are there could be a lot of compromises on environment and industrial tariffs as trade offs for keeping Investment and competition and other Singapore issues out of negotiations for the time being.

Meanwhile, local media gave big display to India's strong opposition to new issues and Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran was dubbed as a saviour of developing countries cause. His hard-hitting speech in the plenary on Saturday was widely quoted.

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