WTO Members Aim for “Realistic” Doha Deliverables for 2013

One year after the Doha Round of trade talks was formally declared at an impasse, WTO members are beginning to show signs of re-engagement in the negotiations, according to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. However, he warned delegates last Friday, members must be realistic and pragmatic in the months ahead to avoid jeopardising the small Doha deliverables package that they aim to clinch by next December’s ninth ministerial conference (MC9) in Bali, Indonesia.

Progress in some areas, standstill in others

Chairs of the various Doha negotiating groups also spoke at Friday’s meeting of the WTO’s Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) - which is tasked with all negotiating aspects of the Doha Round - in order to give delegates the current state of play on the different topics under negotiation.

Topics such as trade facilitation, agriculture, special and different treatment (S&DT), least developed country (LDC) issues, and dispute settlement have advanced over the past twelve months, they said, while others - such as the WTO’s negotiations on services - have barely moved at all, and are unlikely to move forward in the months ahead.

The possibility of a trade facilitation deal by end-2013 - an area of the talks that deals with easing customs procedures and other border restrictions - has gained increased prominence over the past several months. Negotiators have been working toward finding internal balance within the subject-specific talks, as well as trying to find deliverables from other areas of the Round to go with it, in response to concerns from some members that a deal focused solely on trade facilitation would not be “self-balancing.”

On trade facilitation, negotiating group chair Eduardo Ernesto Sperisen-Yurt - who serves as Guatemala’s WTO ambassador - noted that talks in this area have shown promising developments over the past year, with members demonstrating a willingness to continue negotiating further in the year ahead.

In his oral report to the TNC, Sperisen-Yurt also stressed that members should not be alarmed by the various unresolved parts of the trade facilitation draft text.