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The second annual issue of Centad's flagship publication the South Asian Yearbook of Trade and Development 2006, titled Multilateralism at Cross-roads: Reaffirming Development Priorities , was released jointly by S N Menon, Former Commerce Secretary, Government of India (GOI) and Gopal K Pillai, Commerce Secretary, GOI, in a book release function organised by Centad at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, on March 14, 2007
Kasturi Das, Research Officer, Centad, welcomed the guests and participants and invited Palash Kanti Das, Executive Director, Centad, to deliver the inaugural address.
In his inaugural address, Das observed that the South Asian Yearbook of Trade and Development was launched by Centad in 2005 with the primary objective of articulating debate on the development implications of trade in South Asia through rigorous policy analysis and research. The Yearbook is envisaged as a comprehensive collection of policy research papers that reflect South Asian perspectives in international trade negotiations, and provide policy suggestions for trade negotiators, policymakers and other stakeholders in the region. Das pointed out that the inaugural issue of the South Asian Yearbook of Trade and Development, titled Mainstreaming Development in Trade Negotiations: Run-up to Hong Kong , was very well-received all across South Asia and elsewhere.
In his address, Commerce Secretary Gopal K Pillai remarked that the theme of the 2006 Yearbook was extremely relevant as multilateralism was definitely at a crossroads, though reaffirming development priorities, he said, would possibly come a little later. Noting the changed scenario at the WTO, he pointed out how developing countries that constitute two-thirds of WTO members have now started asserting themselves and how this assertion is not something the developed world likes. The fiascos at Cancun and Seattle, perhaps, have not been lesson enough for the developed countries that still feel that if a few of them decide something the developing world must follow suit, he observed.
“You will not have any agreement if this is the way it's going,” Pillai cautioned. Multilateralism is at a crossroads because one is grappling with the new world order in the WTO, which is a member-driven organisation, requiring consensus on every issue, which in itself is one of the big problems and challenges, he said. Pillai hoped that the South Asian Yearbook of Trade and Development 2006 would help bring to the fore some of these main issues, as multilateralism matures in the coming years.
S N Menon, Former Commerce Secretary, congratulated Centad on the quality and range of work it is undertaking in both multilateral and regional issues, and appreciated “the absolute quality and professionalism” of Centad publications. “Without research you really cannot negotiate because you have to negotiate from a position of strength and the strength can only come from knowledge,” he emphasised. This is where Centad's work assumes importance, he added.
As for Yearbook 2006, he observed that it is wide-ranging in its scope and coverage of issues. It is guided by an extremely eminent panel of editors and should be of great use to anyone following the subject of multilateral negotiations.
Talking about the Doha negotiations, Menon warned that time pressures sometimes force developing countries into taking decisions that may not be appropriate, but these countries should not be rushed into any kind of agreement. It is in the long-term interest of South Asia as a region to have free and open trade and, as the largest country, India does have a responsibility towards its weaker neighbours. However, he observed, it is not an easy task given the fact that many parts of India are quite like the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) where people live on less than $ 1 a day. All this needs to be taken into account during the policy formulation process, Menon pointed out.
Professor B S Chimni, Professor of International Law, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and one of the editors of the South Asian Yearbook of Trade and Development 2006 congratulated Centad for the excellent work it has done in bringing out the volume; he regretted that India had not had the same kind of intellectual capital, and organisations like Centad, when the Uruguay Round negotiations were launched.
He explained that many of the mistakes that India as a nation had made in negotiating the outcome of the Uruguay Round would not have been committed had the country then had the kind of research, analysis and experience it has today. In retrospect, one lesson learnt from the experiences of developing countries in the Uruguay Round is that they have to look ahead rather than restrict themselves to the immediate future. Developing countries need to look beyond the Doha Round because, after a point, the WTO may not serve the needs of the First World and multilateralism may indeed reach a crossroads, Professor Chimni said.
He noted how the developed world is already using a whole lot of instruments, including Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), although not so much against India , to notch up standards in Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and investment regimes, and has alternative dispute settlement mechanisms in place. While countries like India are investing so much in the WTO, developed countries may already have alternative strategies in place in different corners of the world, which they may subsequently present as a fait accompli to the big developing countries like India , China and Brazil and may force them to follow suit, Professor Chimni warned.
Acknowledging that organisations like Centad were already doing a great service to academia, the policy community, and civil society, Professor Chimni remarked that the institution would do an even greater service if it looked beyond the Doha Round because “there is a larger project that the First World has; there is a larger map that the First World has; and there is a larger agenda that the First World has that we need to understand right now and we need not wait for it to happen”.
Paras Bansal, Senior Manager, Acquisitions, Wiley ( India ), co-publisher of the Yearbook, commented that the experience of publishing the Yearbook was a memorable one for him. He congratulated Centad for its extremely meticulous and professional work in bringing out the publication. He also announced that the online bookstore, amazon.com, had picked up the Yearbook 2006 to display on its website and that Wiley (India) was going ahead with publishing the Yearbook across all demographies and geographies.
Introducing the South Asian Yearbook of Trade and Development 2006 , Dr Samar Verma, Head-Global Economic Justice Team, Oxfam GB, Oxford , and Chairperson, Centad, remarked that the Yearbook was the flagship publication of Centad that the institution intended to improve upon continuously. He appreciated the significant improvement in quality standards in this second issue of the annual publication and hoped that subsequent issues would continue to create benchmarks for even higher levels of excellence. Observing that a wedding of rigorous research and political analysis could produce a document that was of real use to policymakers, Dr Verma said that this was one of the key objectives of the Yearbook and that feedback from policymakers assumed tremendous importance in this regard.
Noting that the WTO was a more difficult subject to handle, compared to other issues around development, he remarked that there was ample scope for demystifying debates around the WTO and that was something Centad's annual publication aimed at achieving, among other things. It also intends to build up strong arguments on the basis of solid empirical evidence because negotiations are not done on the basis of emotions but on the basis of hardcore empirical evidence. Encouraging everybody to provide feedback on the publication, he remarked that the vision and mission underlying the South Asian Yearbook could not be translated into reality without the active engagement of all stakeholders.
Kasturi Das thanked all the participants for enriching the deliberations with their views. As Research Coordinator of the 2006 Yearbook she also thanked everyone who had played a role in bringing out the volume, mentioning in particular the editors and authors of the articles, and Wiley ( India ), the co-publisher. The evening ended with a dinner hosted by Centad.
Read a related news item, 'Multilateralism at Crossroads', in The Hindu Businessline, December 19, 2007 http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/12/19/stories/
2006121900090900.htm
April 2007
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