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Geneva: July 23, 2008
Update on Agriculture
Initially there had been indication that the Brazil was keen for the deal if the NAMA is able to give the right signal. There was a possibility that the Lamy Text will be released on Friday. However, developed countries were reluctant on the level of ambition across NAMA since they indicated that agriculture is giving too much and they need quid pro quo either in services. The US has been vociferous that only if market access does not yield better they would not agree on anything. China has played an important role supporting the G-33 besides the NAMA-11. On agriculture there has not been much progress in the position. The members of G-33 stand united and felt that the current text is not satisfactory. The statement from US trade representative Susan Schwab on the significance of the historical perspective on the support, benchmarking OTDS to $15 billion and the inclusion of 'Peace Clause' was instrumental in strengthening the developing country groups. This precipitated into a deadlock and the green room meeting was suspended.
Update on NAMA
The NAMA draft was totally disagreeable as South Africa vehemently opposed the content as it will seriously affect the local industries. The coefficients have been unanimously opposed by G-20 and NAMA-11. Even the Chinese has supported the current stand even though it's not a member of this group. The biggest block, according to the South African mission, is the anti-concentration clause and the sectoral initiations
Update on the Services Report
The services text has been deceitfully put forward. The Chair passed the text as report and it has a clause for para 4 which acceded to the commitment from all member to bind it in the current commitment. This has been initially opposed by Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicargua which now has been supported by all developing member countries including China and Brazil. This particular movement has been one of the main causes of the deadlock which the current round has entered.
Meeting with the Chinese Minister
Our meeting with the Chinese Trade Minister Lee En Hang fully support the G-33 and the G-20 position. He even reiterated that they would support till the end. On the NAMA-11 though China is not a member and the coefficient does not mean anything to the country, they support it unanimously. There is media noting that the biggest beneficiary to the current deal is China to which he differed that the biggest benefits will still be limited to rich countries like the US, EU and Japan. He refuted that the current indication that mode 4 will benefit more the developed country as the professional services advantage remains with them. Even in telecommunication and information technology, the biggest beneficiary still lies with the developed countries. China strongly supported the proposal to limit the trade distorting and continues the support to stop the box shifting that is taking place and allowing trade distorting support to continue. This, according to Hang, is depriving developing and poor countries of any opportunity to develop and make gains in the future. On market access he clarified that China support the poor developing countries' farmers and quoted as saying that of about 500 million farmers in China, close to 104 million live on less than $1 a day while equally more than 400 million live under $2 a day. On NAMA, China supports the para 7a and would prefer coefficient of 30 for developing countries and 5 for developed countries. He stated that China will not need high coefficient as tariffs are still low and felt the need for more sensitive products. He even strongly pledged support against anti-concentration clause and sectoral initiative. Chinese wants the Doha Round to be successfully concluded and is not averse to any time it can take. It reiterated its position that it will co-operate to all possible extent for the final convergence on development issues. On special products and SSM, Chinese opposed any talk on Special Product, no reduction between 0-6 per cent and wanted a higher percentage and the SSM threshold of 15 percentage as inadequate and wanted more flexibility. He even refused to accept the US position of allowing support level at $15 billion rather wants the support to come down to $13 billion. He explained the late entry in the WTO as an attempt to strengthen the development mandate and to fight against the unjust trade rules. China opposed the services format of the current negotiation and comparable level of ambition that is being sorted for.
Fig 1 Chinese Trade Minister Lee En Hung meets Trade Union and Civil Societies from across the globe
Linu Mathew Philip
Fellow
Centad, India
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