WTO Deal: India claims victory
02 Aug 2004
New Delhi: India has claimed victory at the World Trade Organisation for being able to successfully protect its interests in agriculture and other key areas. The revised framework for negotiations was adopted by the general council of the WTO in Geneva late Saturday night.
The framework sets out the guidelines for relaunching the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations which got stalled after the failure of the fifth WTO ministerial meet in Cancun, Mexico, last September.
According to an official release, the framework meets India's key demands aimed at preserving the country's domestic policy space by providing for special products; special safeguard mechanism; and special and differential (S&D) treatment in respect of market access in agriculture. Also, India has scored with the dropping of the three Singapore Issues relating to investment, competition policy and government procurement from the Doha agenda.
India, together with other members of the G-20 group of developing countries, has been successful in averting commitment to reduce de minimis support (domestic support equivalent to 10 per cent of total value of agri production). Its long-standing demand for special products and a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) in order to protect the interests of the farmers have also been met, the release added.
Acceptance of the concept of proportionality, which would require lesser tariff reduction commitments from developing countries, is another major gain. The tiered or banded approach takes into account sensitivities of developing countries in agriculture such as tariff structures are fundamentally different from that of the developed countries.
On domestic support, tightening of the existing blue box used by developed countries for providing subsidies linked to production, is an important move in the direction of cutting down trade distorting subsidies. The elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies by an end date will benefit farm exports from developing countries as prices would become more competitive.
In the area of services, the framework provides that special attention will be given to sectors and modes of supply of export interest to developing countries especially in Mode 4 which relates to movement of natural persons. It also provides that members shall strive to ensure a high quality offers for liberalisation of services, particularly in sectors and modes of supply of export interest to developing countries.
On Implementation Issues, the framework establishes a road map for resolving them by instructing the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) and other WTO bodies to redouble their efforts to find appropriate solutions as a priority.
The Director-General of the WTO will continue consultations on all outstanding Implementation Issues under para 12 (b) of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, including issues relating to extension of the protection of geographical indications (GIs) under the TRIPS Agreement to products other than wines and spirits.
In the area of non-agriculture market access, the text is exactly the same as the 'Derbez text - circulated in Cancun, Mexico, last year. Since, no country had major objections to it and a lot in the text remains to be negotiated, the WTO considered it safe to leave it untouched.
