Doha Round Progressing But Lacking Momentum

Summarizing the discussions of the World Trade Organization's Trade Negotiation Committee (TNC) in their latest, informal meeting, the Organization's Director-General, Pascal Lamy warned that “a major acceleration – multilaterally, plurilaterally, and bilaterally – is needed," and that the window of opportunity to conclude the Doha Round is narrowing every day.

Lamy said that following the informal meeting of the TNC on February 2 Ministers met at an informal gathering in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss hurdles to the the conclusion of what would be a legally-binding agreement on the reduction of global trade barriers.

Pascal said of progress being made:

“My remarks at the informal TNC, including the overview of negotiating groups, were circulated to delegations. I do not intend to repeat what I said then, but I would nevertheless like to place on the record the main message that I took from Geneva to Ministers in Davos.”

“In my intervention in Davos I noted that the activities in Geneva were showing a change of gear and approach in both legs of the negotiating process, that is in the Negotiating Groups as well as in the bilateral and plurilateral consultations. In the Negotiating Groups there is an overall sense of greater engagement and focus, with no single topic being left behind. Work is progressing on developing draft language and textual proposals as well as in removing brackets. Nevertheless, I stressed to Ministers that the pace of multilateral work was not only too slow, but also too short of the kind of substantive progress needed to reach the landing zone within the window of opportunity that leaders have identified.”

“Regarding the bilateral and plurilateral leg, I shared with Ministers my concern that this process is lagging behind, thereby risking to starve the multilateral negotiations of the oxygen required to make the next leap forward. Without an imminent transfer of energy from the bilateral and plurilateral processes, all the hard work done over the past few weeks in the multilateral track risks coming to a grinding halt. In other words, I said that the current multilateral momentum needs fuel, and it needs it urgently.”

“In Davos I sensed an unambiguous determination among Ministers to further accelerate the Geneva process to meet the 2011 window of opportunity identified by the G20 and APEC Leaders. Ministers present agreed to increase the pressure on their various bilateral and plurilateral negotiations so as to provide the necessary momentum and also agreed that our current work must build on progress reached thus far. They committed to instructing their negotiators to reassess positions, abandon comfort zones and engage in genuine 'give-and-takes'. Finally, Ministers emphasized their readiness to engage personally in the negotiating process at the appropriate moment. But they were also quite clear that they expect the Geneva process to bring them a limited number of issues for them to crack.”

“As far as the bilateral and plurilateral discussions among Senior Officials which have taken place over the past couple of weeks, I understand that they have been constructive and have explored specific substantive issues in a number of key areas, including flexibilities and how to ensure overall balance across issues. I also understand that participants in these talks have emphasized the importance of the multilateral process. Although it is still early, I am encouraged by the direction and nature of these talks and I urge the participants to keep up the pressure, push harder and dig deeper in their efforts to find the common ground necessary to put the multilateral pen to paper.”

Concluding, Lamy informed that a further informal TNC is scheduled for March 8 to reevaluate progress being made, and assess the 'state-of-play' across the board.

Feb 24^th, 2011

Source: tax-news.com