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Developing Countries in the Doha Round Reforming the World Trade Organization Developing Countries in the Doha Round & Reforming the World Trade Organization Developing Countries in the Doha Round Published by D-217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park Chemin du Point-du-Jour 6 bis Jaipur 302 016, India 1202, Geneva, Switzerland Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Website: www.cuts-international.org Website: www.fes-geneva.org Researched and written by Faizel Ismail Head of the South African Delegation to the World Trade Organization Citation Reforming the World Trade Organization Developing Countries in the Doha Round Printed by Jaipur Printers P. Ltd., Jaipur 302 001 ISBN 978-81-8257-126-6 © Faizel Ismail, 2009 The views expressed here are those of the author in his personal capacity and therefore, in no way be taken to reflect those of CUTS, FES and the South African Government. #0911, Rs.200/US$20 Contents Foreword by Supachai Panitchpakdi.......................................................................... i Foreword by Rob Davies........................................................................................... iii Preface and Acknowledgements................................................................................. v Abbreviation and Acronyms ...................................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Introduction: Developing countries in the GATT and the WTO .... 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 1 1.2 Rediscovering the Role of Developing Countries in the GATT... 2 1.3 The Role of the G20 and the NAMA 11 ....................................... 3 1.4 From Potsdam to Geneva.............................................................. 3 1.5 The Role of the Chair in the WTO Negotiations .......................... 4 1.6 The December 2008 Collapse of the Doha Round ....................... 5 1.7 Lessons for Developing Country Coalitions from the July 2008 Ministerial Collapse............................................................. 6 1.8 Reforming the World Trading Organisation ................................. 7 1.9 Prospects for the Doha Round in 2009 and Beyond .................... 7 Chapter 2: Before Doha: Rediscovering the Role of Developing Countries in GATT ........................................................ 11 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 11 2.2 Why has the GATT Failed to Address the Development Needs of Developing Countries? ................................................ 12 2.3 Did Developing Countries Play a Passive and Defensive Role in the GATT? .................................................... 14 2.4 Did Developing Countries Exchange Concessions? Had they Provided more Concessions, could they have Extracted more Concessions from the Developed Countries in Return? ............. 16 2.5 Was Special and Differential Treatment the main Objective and Focus of Developing Countries in the GATT? ... 21 2.6 Launching the Uruguay Round ................................................... 24 2.7 Conclusion .................................................................................. 25 Chapter 3: G20 and the NAMA 11: Developing Countries in the Doha Round ................................................................................. 31 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 31 3.2 From Doha to Cancun ................................................................. 32 3.3 The July 2004 Framework Agreement........................................ 36 3.4 The Hong Kong Ministerial Conference .................................... 39 3.5 From Hong Kong to the Suspension of the DDA in July 2006 .. 42 3.6 The Collapse of the G4 in Potsdam and the July 2007 Agriculture and NAMA Texts (first drafts) ................................ 46 3.7 Conclusion: Assessing the Evolution of G20 and NAMA 11 .... 51 Chapter 4: The Role of the Chair in WTO Negotiations from June 2007 to July 2008 ...................................................................... 57 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 57 4.2 Theoretical Concepts on the Role of the Chair .......................... 59 4.3 The First Draft Texts ................................................................... 63 4.4 First Revision .............................................................................. 67 4.5 The Second Revised Texts .......................................................... 70 4.6 The Third Revised Texts ............................................................. 73 4.7 Conclusion .................................................................................. 76 Chapter 5: An Assessment of the WTO Doha Round, July-December 2008 .......................................................................... 83 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 83 5.2 The WTO July Ministerial Meetings and the “Lamy Package”.................................................................... 86 5.3 Assessment of the Collapse ........................................................ 88 5.4 Conclusion and Policy Recommendations ................................. 98 Chapter 6: July-Dec 2008 Collapse: Lessons for Developing Country Coalitions .................................. 105 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 105 6.2 Theoretical Contributions to the Debate on Coalitions ............ 106 6.3 Lessons for Developing Country Groupings ............................ 106 Chapter 7: Reforming the WTO .........................................................................111 7.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 111 7.2 Prioritising “Development” as a goal of the WTO ................... 112 7.3 The WTO and Coherence ......................................................... 121 7.4 WTO Governance and Decision Making ................................. 128 7.5 Conclusion ................................................................................ 133 Chapter 8: Prospects for Concluding the Doha Round in 2010 ..................... 141 8.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 141 8.2 Doha Round: The State of Play ................................................ 141 8.3 The Global Economic Crisis..................................................... 144 8.4 Efforts to Resume the Doha Round in 2009 ............................. 147 8.5 The Seventh WTO Ministerial Conference .............................. 151 8.6 Trade and Climate Change........................................................ 152 8.7 Prospects for a Successful Conclusion of the Doha Round: What is the Way Forward? ................................. 153 Foreword This book helps bring to centre-stage the role that developing countries have played over the decades in the multilateral trading system and makes a number of useful proposals for reforming and strengthening the system. Faizel Ismail provides well-documented evidence of the active participation of developing countries in the debates that took place in the United Nations Economic and Social Council on the creation of the proposed International Trade Organisation (ITO) from the early 1950s onwards. When the proposal was finally shelved in 1955, developing countries continued to fight for their interests to be addressed in the negotiations that had taken place in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) since 1947. While their demands for increased opportunities to export products of interest to them, mainly agriculture and textiles, were met with increased protection in the developed countries, they did manage to secure some Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) provisions in GATT rules. In the current Doha Round, developing countries have put forward 88 proposals to review these provisions, with a view to strengthening and making them more effective. The author of this publication chaired the Special Session on Trade and Development in the WTO that was tasked to negotiate the proposals and thus brings a highly informed and special perspective to the debate. Perhaps one of the most significant achievements of the developing countries undergoing decolonisation in the early 1960s was the creation of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Under Part IV of the GATT, parties agreed to “collaborate with the United Nations and its organs and agencies in matters of trade and development policy”. The author states that UNCTAD was to become “the premier international organisation that dealt with trade and development policy issues in the 1990s”. This book calls for strengthening UNCTAD and building greater coherence between it and the WTO – a call to which I fully subscribe – as well as for reforming the WTO. It makes a significant contribution to reviewing the academic literature on the role of developing countries in the GATT and continues the story of the unfolding Doha Round that began in the author’s previous book, on Mainstreaming Development in the WTO. During my term as Director-General of the WTO, I established a consultative board to deliberate on how to address the increasing demands of developing countries – which are now the vast majority of its members – to reform the WTO. The outcome
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