Doha and Singapore Issues

8/13/2019 Doha and Singapore Issues

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Presented By :

Kunal Patel

Parth Vala

Nirav Parmar

DOHA DEVELOPMENT ROUND

Submitted to :

Prof. Y. C. Joshi


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WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION


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History:

Officially commenced on 1stJanuary 1995.Replaced the GATT with 153 member countries.

Represents 97 % of World trade.

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.Governed by a ministerial conference, meeting every two years,

a General Council and a Director-General

Objective:

Supervise and Liberalize International Trade.

Provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade

agreements.

Dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants'

adherence to WTO

WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION


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DOHA DEVELOPMENTAL ROUND


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History:

Launched at the fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar inNovember 2001.

Succeeded the Uruguay round and the three ministerialconferences at Singapore (1996), Geneva (1998) and Seattle (1999).

Objectives:

Lower trade barriers around the world.

Committing all countries to negotiations opening agricultural and

manufacturing markets, as well as trade-in-services (GATS)

negotiations and expanded intellectual property regulation (TRIPS).

Make trade rules fairer for developing countries

DOHA DEVELOPMENTAL ROUND


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Agriculture (including Cotton added in 2003)

Services

Non agricultural market access (NAMA)

TRIPS (multilateral system for registration & notification of

geographical indications)

WTO Rules (AD, Subsidies, RTAs)

Trade and Environment

Special and Differential Treatment Trade Facilitation (added in 2004)

DSU (outside Single-Undertaking)

20 subjects in 9 broad areas:


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KEY ISSUES AT DOHA

November 2001 Minister Youssef

Hussain Kamal of Qatar at the Fourth

Ministerial Conference, Doha.


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Agriculture has become the linchpin of the agenda for both developing

and developed countries

Compulsory licensing of medicines and

patent protection

A review of provisions giving special and differential treatment todeveloping countries.

Resolve problems that developing countries are having in implementing

current trade obligations.

Key Interests for ASEAN countries

Greater market access for industrial goods.

Trade facilitation.

Anti dumping and subsidies.

Technical Co-operation.

Effective dispute settlement mechanism

KEY ISSUES AT DOHA


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Principles of the trading system


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Non-Discrimination

Most favored nation

Reciprocity

Binding and enforceable commitments

TransparencySafety valves

Agreements

Agreement on Agriculture (AoA)

General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs)

Principles of the trading system


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Cancun Conference 2003

The conference was aimed at forging agreement on the DDA.

Called for an end to agricultural subsidies within the EU and the

US.

Hong Kong Conference 2005

Countries agreed to phase out all their agricultural exportsubsidies by the end of 2013.

Agreement to introduce duty free, tariff free access for goods.

Geneva Conference 2008

Negotiation over the special safeguard mechanism.

The negotiations collapsed on July 29 over issues of

agricultural trade between the United States, India, and China.

Geneva Conference 2009

On 26 May 2009, agreed to hold a seventh WTO ministerialconference session in Geneva from 30 November3 December 2009.

"The WTO, the Multilateral Trading System and the Current GlobalEconomic Environment"


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Types of Impasses of relevance at DOHA round


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Parties could not agree to launch a negotiation. (Impasse on

initiation.)

Parties could not agree on the subjects for the negotiation

(Impasse on contents.)

After agreeing to start a negotiation the parties take a long time

to come to a mutually agreeable outcome. (Impasse as delay.)

Having agreed to start a negotiation, subsequently the parties

appear unable to conclude the negotiation with an agreement.

(Impasse as high expected failure to agree.)

Having agreed to start a negotiation, subsequently the parties

can only agree to conclude the activity of negotiation without

an agreement. (Impasse as actual failure to agreefortunately

the DDA has not reached this point.)

Types of Impasses of relevance at DOHA round


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INTERESTS OF INDIA

Accelerating integration with

world economy (Globalization).

Foster more rapid growth and

poverty reduction.

Expand access to World Markets.

Voice in formulation of rules and

Decision Making in the WTO.

Guarding against the intrusion of

non-traded matters in WTO.

BENEFITS TO INDIA

Increase in Indias textile & clothing

exports due to the phasing out of

MFA(in 2005).

The reduction in agricultural

subsidies & barriers to export of

agriculture products, agricultural

exports from India also increased.

Market access to a number ofdeveloping countries without trade

discrimination increased.


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Disadvantages for India


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TRIPs agreement went against the Indian Patents Act (1970)

Introduction of product patents in India lead to hike in drug prices by

the MNCs. Hence the poor were left with no generic option

Extension of intellectual property right to agriculture has negative

effects on India and Indian research institutions

Application of TRIMs agreement undermines any plan or strategy of self

reliant growth based on local technology.

Service sectors in India are backward compared to the service sectors indeveloped countries. Hence inclusion of trade in services is detrimental

to the interest of India.

The MFN clause proved to be detrimental to Indias interest & provided

grounds for Chinese invasion in Indian market through dumping.

Disadvantages for India


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Unaddressed Issues


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In order not to discredit itself, globalization would have to squarelyaddress sustainable development and poverty reduction.

There must be an attempt to link the strategies of development tosomething more fundamental, the ends of economic and social

development.

The international trade rules are underpinned by an insufficientappreciation of the adverse impact of rapid liberalization, if it doesnot pay adequate attention to the need to reduce asset and incomeinequalities.

Without substantial investment in the capacity to supply and,equally important, a guaranteed safety net against falling prices andimport surges, sudden liberalization would expose the constituents to

unbearable risk.

Unaddressed Issues


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Agriculture Issues in Developing Nations


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One of the key issues is the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA).

Areas related to Agriculture-Market Access, Domestic Support,

export Competition, Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights .

40 to 50 % of support to the farmers in the form of Green Box

subsidies.

Developed countries allowed to retain 80% of their subsidies while

developing countries can subsidize their farmers not more than 10%.

Increasing dependency on imports for food grains could bring strain

on external payment position of these countries.

Agriculture Issues in Developing Nations


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What is MFA all about ?

What is ATC ?

What is TMB ?

What happened to ATC ?

Impact of ATC termination

Textile industry merged into GATT underWTO..

Textile Industry


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Impact of Free Trade on Different products

Poultry

Cigarettes

Liquor Beverages

Tea and Coffee

Coconut Oil

Butter Cheese

ChocolateShaving Brushes

Baby FoodOral Hygiene

Removal of

Quantitative

Restrictions.


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Weakness Of World Trade Organization

WTO is fundamentally undemocratic.

WTO causes trampling of labor and human rights.

Privatization of Essential services.

Fuel issues.

Food issues.

Forest issues.

Creating a Rich mans world.


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Singapore Issue


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A feature of the world trade organization during its first 10 years has been the

impact of Singapore issue of

Investment

Competition

Government procurement and

Trade facilitation

Singapore Issue


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It arises because WTO members decided at 1996 Singapore ministerial conference toset up three new working groups on:

Trade and investment

trade and competition policy and

Transparency in government procurement

They also looked at simplifying trade procedure as it became known trade facilitation.

Developed country members especially the US and EU were satisfied because they had

the issue firmly on the agenda. In contrast mostly developing countries were not agree.


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(1) Trade Facilitation:-

Traders from both developing and developed countries have long pointed at

the vast amount of red tape that still exist in moving good across the

borders.

Documentation requirement often lack transparency and are often

duplicated, a problem compounded by a lack of co operation between

traders and their respective official agencies.

The Individual Singapore issue Examined:


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(2) African regional dimension:

Treading cost including the trade facilitation costs are very high in Africa.

Further more, the lack of reliable trade data within the southern African

custom union (SACU) becomes a serious problem.


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(3) Government Procurement

The role of government in its procurement of goods and services typically

accounts for 10-15% of GDP for developed countries and about 20% of

GDP for developing countries.

WTO members signed the plurilateral agreement on government

procurement at the Uruguay round in 1994.

Most of the signatories countries are developed countries consisting of US,

UK, Canada, EU etc.


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The intension of GPA (Government procurement Agreement) is to ensure

that government decision regarding government purchase of goods and

services do not depend upon where the goods is produced or from where

the services are rendered.

This initial step led to establishment of the working group at 1996

ministerial conference at Singapore to investigate government procurement

transparency- in this way Singapore issue came into existence.

Many countries for a variety of reasons place restrictions on GPA, for both

goods and services. Some will do to encourage domestic industry.


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Question the rationale for bringing investment into the WTO as it was

overburdened and illequipped to handle investment

Question the need for a multilateral framework as it would not grant

developing countries any certainty of additional FDI flows and the BITs

were serving the requirements well with the needed flexibility

Trade and Investment has different effects and different treatment of these

issues was required

Investment policies are closely linked to national development policies in

which developing countries need policy space

Doha mandate is about a clarification process, not about negotiations and

clarity has not been achieved

Trade & InvestmentIndias position


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Competition Policy covers besides, trade policy, investment, industrial etc.

policies, and WTO may not be the forum for Competition policy as such Countries are at different stages of development: Multilateral Competition

Policy assumes convergence of economic and even political interests

Naturally, bilateral agreements are few and confined to developed

countries or to RTAs

Efforts by some Members are to address governmental measures, while

India is interested in enterprisepractices having cross border effects

being addressed Effectiveness of WTO provisions doubtful in the absence of readiness of

Members like the US, EC, Japan etc. for information sharing and DSU.

Peer Review would work against developing countries in view of

asymmetryof market power of WTO Members

Trade &Competition - Indias Position


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For India transparency means gathering full information about a

Members procurement regime - No new commitments for changing or

modifying any aspect of its procurement system;

Regarding coverage, due to the federal structure of the government and

the large number of entities involved it would be very difficult to providedetailed information on all levels of procurement;

Information on the Central Government procurements of goods (not

services) above a particular threshold limit could be considered;

On other issues such as information on laws/ rules; procurement

opportunities; information on procedures; time periods; etc. could be

provided and was easily available already;

India has objected to any prescriptions on domestic review procedures;

Transparency in GP - Indias Position


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India had expressed its reservations regarding the need for multilateral

rules on TF in WTO.

No need for an agreement for what are essentially trade procedures.

Other expert bodies like WCO dealing with similar issues.

Resource implications in terms of modernization, commitment for timely

clearance of goods would be difficult for developing countries to meet.

Not clear how DSU would apply to a Procedural Agreement

Trade Facilitation - Indias Position


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THANK YOU

Doha and Singapore Issues

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