The Doha Round has precious little negotiating time left to it, and, while members have begun to accept the gravity of the situation, more must be done, according to Pascal Lamy, who has advocated a "three lane" approach to prioritizing the issues left on the table.

The World Trade Organisation's (WTO) director general was speaking at an informal meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), which oversees the negotiations, on May 31. The gathering had been called in order for Lamy to essentially report back on the outcome of a series of consultations held with members of all levels, and to de-brief the TNC on the conclusions of two high level conferences he recently attended.

According to Lamy, on each occasion, stong concern over the future of the Round was expressed, but so was resolve and commitment. From his discussions, Lamy says he has been able to draw five key "elements". These are: no one wants to drop the Doha mandate; no member is ready to see the Single Undertaking broken, or its specific issues of interest scrapped; there exists a unity of purpose on the need to see headway made; the importance of having clarity on the creation of a road map for the agenda, in the wake of the 8th Ministerial Conference, to be held in December; and the development of a common thread running through the issues.

In light of these ideas emerging, Lamy believes that discussions now need to be intensified, and approached in a cooperative and constructive manner. He stressed: "There is precious little time if we are to deliver by the WTO Ministerial Conference. It is time we roll up our sleeves and restart working – that is, negotiating. And as we do so, we must recreate the spirit of co-operation that was present when we launched the Doha Round."

With this in mind, Lamy then went on to expound his "three lanes" theory for the progress of negotiations. Issues should be prioritized, according to urgency. Therefore, in the "fast track" are issues affecting less developed countries (LDCs), including duty free, quota free and rules of origin. In the "medium lane" is the need to secure a "LDC plus" outcome, with a significant development component, in time for the December meeting. Lastly, the "slow lane" is occupied by issues which will need to be looked at beyond the Ministerial Conference, and for which a plan must be formulated by December at the latest.

In spite of this prioritizing, a sense of urgency remains in Lamy's insistence that negotiations must move forward. He emphasized that: "The immediate challenge, then, is to generate momentum on realistic, credible and achievable targets for a positive result by the end of the year, so that we can get down to working on them without delay. We need to avoid a lengthy negotiation about the issues to be negotiated, or we could find ourselves going round in circles. With only 15 weeks of work remaining until mid-November, we have no time to waste. It is vital that we get into the substance of the priority issues for the Ministerial without delay."

Lamy is to call another informal TNC meeting for June 9.

June 2^nd, 2011

Source: tax-news.com

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