WTO: Is the Doha Round entering a (very, very) delicate phase?

This weekend I stumbled upon an interesting (and somewhat alarming) article, dated 24 April 2011, in the online edition of the Brazilian newspaper "O Globo". The article was titled "Com possibilidade remota de acordo, Rodada de Doha está em xeque".  

Translated into English the title would read something like: "Because of the remote possibility of an agreement, the Doha Round is now in check"

According to the article, which was quoting Brazil's Ambassador to the WTO, "the situation is serious".

Further, and referring to people who are closely following the negotiations, the article says that the negotiators are working on four scenarios:

1) continuity,

2) change of approach, i.e. keep trying, but with some adjustments,

3) "uncontrolled landing", featuring a dramatic end to the Round Doha, and

4) "organised ending", i.e. a way to suspend the process, without hurting the credibility of the multilateral trading system.

On the last scenario the article mentions that "It is the first time that the fourth hypothesis comes from the backstage and reaches the ears of other country Members of the organisation".

And last but least the article concludes by pointing the Mr Lamy who "concerned about the poor prospects about an agreement […] will start in the next month, a series of bilateral meetings.

Here is the link to the article:

http://oglobo.globo.com/economia/mat/2011/03/24/com-possibilidade-remota-de-acordo-rodada-de-doha-esta-em-xeque-924079024.asp

The website of the Brazilian Ministry for External Relations (Itamaraty) has included this article in the Ministry's press review:

http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/sala-de-imprensa/selecao-diaria-de-noticias/midias-nacionais/brasil/globo-online/2011/03/25/com-possibilidade-remota-de-acordo-rodada-de-doha

The situation appears indeed to be so serious that Mr Lamy, in the press conference following a panel discussion in the "Brussels Forum" of the German Marshall Fund on Saturday 26 March 2011, said that he would not answer questions related to the Doha round as he had a a session with the whole membership on Tuesday (29 March 2011) and he needed to talk to the WTO Membership before talking to journalists.

Here is the transcript of the link to the transcript of the press conference:

http://brussels.gmfus.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Brussels-Forum-Press-Release-following-G20-en-Vogue-2.pdf

WTO: Pascal Lamy meets environmental NGOs in the USA...and discusses fisheries subsidies

Oceana's website reports on a visit by the WTO's Director General, Pascal Lamy, to the headquarters of this organisation.

According to the post in "The Beacon" (a blog in Oceana's website) Mr Lamy participated in a roundtable discussion with ten environmental organisations focusing "on promoting an open and active dialogue about trade and the environment and the WTO’s ability to address both."

The only "trade and environment" subject that appears in the blog's post is fisheries subsidies.

I wonder whether other "trade and environment" subjects, currently negotiated in the context of the WTO's Doha Round, were discussed during the meeting. I am thinking here of the negotiations on the reduction or elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to "environmental goods and services". Examples of environmental goods and services: waste management tools, catalytic converters, air filters, biofuels, or consultancy services on wastewater management.

Another subject being negotiated under the trade and environment chapter are the relations between the WTO and the so called "Multilateral Environmental Agreements" or MEAs.

Here is the link to the post in Oceana's blog "The Beacon"  on Mr Lamy's meeting with US environmental NGOs.

http://na.oceana.org/en/blog/2011/03/oceana-hosts-wto-director-general-pascal-lamy

WTO: Director-General Pascal Lamy on fisheries subsidies on World Environment Day (5 June 2010)

Mr Pascal Lamy made a statement on World Environment Day and referred to fisheries subsidies negotations as an area where the WTO is helping to protect world oceans. On the issue on reaching a deal on this negotiating subject Mr Lamy said:

"A deal in the WTO would mean richer oceans for future generations and would constitute a triple-win for trade, environment and development".

What strcuk me is that Mr Lamy did not say a deal in the context of the Doha Round but rather... a deal in the WTO...(outside the Doha Round?).

http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news10_e/dgpl_05jun10_e.htm

WTO: current stalemate in the Doha Round - "Two issues need to be resolved".

Last May the IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies) held the Bahrain Global Forum in Manama, on the subject “Rebalancing Global Geo-economic Strategies for Security, Growth and Development”.

One of the key speeches (a special address) was delivered by Pascal Lamy on Sunday 16 May 2010. The title of this special address was “Reshuffling the Deck of Global Economic Cards". By the way, I did not find this speech in the WTO’s website (Speeches of the Director General).

While in his speech Mr Lamy did not explicitly refer to the negotiations on “Rules” nor to fisheries subsidies, there was talk about fisheries in the ensuing Q&A session.

A number of media echoed the contents of this Q&A session. One of the statements these media quoted was the following:

"Two issues need to be resolved: one is a technical negotiation over fishery subsidies, and the other is that the Obama administration needs the political will to take a Doha Round bill to Congress and get it passed," Lamy said.

Here are the links to the “Special Address” and to the Q&A question:

http://www.iiss.org/conferences/bahrain-global-forum/speeches/special-address/special-address-pascal-lamy/

http://www.iiss.org/conferences/bahrain-global-forum/speeches/special-address/qa-session/

And here the links to media discussing Mr Lamy’s statements:

http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=395351

http://www.dynamicexport.com.au/news/world-trade-to-rise-up-to-10-percent-wto01042/

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jArswzvUuxWL8K9i3m3MfiLsi8rw

http://www.truthabouttrade.org/news/latest-news/16017-free-trade-resilient-during-world-crisis

WTO: Pascal Lamy on fisheries subsidies, again.

The Director General of the WTO has, once again, referred to fisheries subsidies as a prominent negotiating subject in the WTO Doha Round.

He did that recently, during a speech he delivered at the Round Table Centre for Public Studies in Santiago on 15 April 2010.

This time he framed his reference to fisheries subsidies by underscoring how important "trade rules" are for WTO Members. Here is the paragraph of Mr Lamy's speech where he speaks about fisheries subsidies:

We all know that governments could do things to restrict trade without infringing their WTO obligations, but the rules draw a line beyond which it is not possible to go without breaking the system, and more importantly in my view, the WTO has created a culture of cooperation. The trade rules have stood to the protectionist pressures but we now need to ensure that this culture of cooperation brings the Doha Round to its completion. We need to ensure that the rules of the WTO, which are a public good, are improved and updated. Failure may be costly on a global scale. Take the example of fishery subsidies. We have a mandate to negotiate the prohibition of certain subsidies which contribute to over-capacity and over-fishing. Present disciplines are inadequate. Scientific studies tell us that over 80 per cent of fish stocks are over-exploited. We need action and for that, we need leadership from our membership. The coastal population in Chile which has been severely affected by the earthquake and which is dependent on fishing activities knows this only too well.

So, according to Mr Lamy trade rules are a "public good" to be improved and updated and are critical to fight problems such as over-capacity and over-fishing.

What I miss in this paragraph, and in the speech, is a reference to the fact that these rules relate to the use of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures. Nowhere in the speech could I find these (ugly?) words. And yet, Chilean fish products, i.e. farmed salmon, have been subject to anti-dumping measures imposed by the U.S.

Rules on anti-dumping and anti-subsidy are also discussed under the so called “Rules” chapter and it seems that, unless progress is made in these “nasty” area of what the EU has called “trade defence instruments” (and in all other areas of the WTO Doha Round), no new rules on fisheries subsidies will be agreed. This holds true, provided WTO Members will continue to stick to principle of the “single undertaking”.

Here is the link to Mr Lamy’s speech:

http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl153_e.htm

WTO: Fish, a "pressing issue" for Pascal Lamy

Fish is definitely one of the favourite subjects of the WTO Director General, at least when it comes to talking about the WTO’s Doha Development Agenda.

In an article recently published in The Guardian’s section « Comment is free » and titled « Lamy's lament on trade liberalisation » the author, Larry Elliott, enumerates the pressing issues that were discussed at the Davos meeting. Fish is cited as a pressing issue (after Financial markets. Greenhouse gases and Currencies).

Here is the link to the article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/28/davos-wto

WTO: Director General Pascal Lamy on Fisheries Subsidies (4)

Here is an extract of Director-General Pascal Lamy, keynote address “How can the WTO help harness globalization?” to the WTO Public Forum on 4 October 2007:

"But things are changing in the WTO once again as we speak, thanks to the efforts of civil society. I am referring to the Doha Round negotiations on fisheries subsidies. For the longest time, many viewed the WTO architecture on subsidies as static, as not capable of change. But civil society soon came to knock on our doors, drawing our attention to the perilous state of much of the world's fish stock. Its message was clear, the WTO has a vital role to play in protecting the world's fish stock, in saving it from depletion.

The numbers that think tanks and NGOs put on the table left no room for ambiguity. They required no further explanation. An annual $14-20 billion of fisheries subsidies worldwide has been one of the causes of fish stock depletion, encouraging “too many fishermen to chase after too few fish” as saying now goes. Worldwide, the global fishing fleet, which includes 25,000 large decked-ships and well over 2 million smaller commercial craft, pulls 80 million tons of fish or more from the oceans, or four times the 1950 total! The story was alarming and the WTO Membership once again rose to the challenge.

Today, negotiations on fisheries subsidies in the WTO are in full swing and they are being taken extremely seriously. The Membership realizes the magnitude of what is stake were these negotiations to fail. And just in case it would forget, you have placed banners all over Geneva to remind us all of the need to reach an agreement! But civil society, in this particular case, did not stop at awareness raising, it came forward with technical suggestions on how the WTO could craft new disciplines; and in so doing has certainly made a real contribution. In fact, to a number of civil society actors this particular experience served to demonstrate how close collaboration with WTO Members can sometimes be vital to achieving their goals. "

In the above extract Mr Lamy says : “But civil society, in this particular case, did not stop at awareness raising, it came forward with technical suggestions on how the WTO could craft new disciplines; and in so doing has certainly made a real contribution.”

This reminds me that the WWF issued in 2004 a document titled “Healthy Fisheries, Sustainable Trade: Crafting New Rules On Fishing Subsidies in the World Trade Organization” setting out an outline of future fisheries subsidies rules. Some of the elements of this outline can be found in Brazil’s early submissions (see WTO docs TN/RL/W/176 of 31 March 2005, TN/RL/GEN/56 4 July 2005 and TN/RL/GEN/79 of 16 November 2005).

WWF and Oceana have also been in close touch with the U.S. government to provide advice on how to deal with this negotiating subject.

WTO: Director general Lamy updates WTO Members on fisheries subsidies negotiations

Here is an extract of Mr Lamy's report to the informal meeting of the "Trade Negotiations Committee" (TNC) on 24 July 2009:

With respect to fisheries subsidies, delegations continue to work through the road map circulated at the same time as the December 2008 texts. The Chair has ndicated that he expects to complete the discussion of the road map during the course of the Autumn, with a next meeting already scheduled for September and a further meeting expected in October. Following the completion of the road map discussion, the Chair intends to provide delegations with an opportunity to present any alternative visions as to the structure and substance of fisheries subsidies disciplines.

You will recall that the Chair emphasized when he issued his December 2008 text that he was taking the bottom-up approach to negotiations that delegations had requested. It is his hope that the intensive ongoing discussions will put him in a position where he will be able to issue texts, hopefully reflecting some degree of convergence, which can only come from members.

Here is the link to the webpage at the WTO website with Mr Lamy's speech to the TNC:

http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news09_e/tnc_dg_stat_24jul09_e.htm