Efforts to salvage the so-called Doha Round of multilateral negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) have collapsed. These talks, which have been in process for nearly five years, have been suspended. It is undetermined at this time when - or if - the talks may ever re-commence.
Crisis meetings over the weekend in Geneva among the trade ministers from the G6 nations (the U.S., the EU, Australia, Brazil, India and Japan) came to an abrupt conclusion last night. Negotiators are meeting again today, although it is widely assumed that the talks will center on how and when to pick up the fallen pieces, as opposed to substantive negotiations.
Although there have been many sticking points throughout the course of the Doha Rounds negotiations, trade in agricultural products has always been the raison de’être as well as the overriding point of contention of the Doha Round. Two issues in particular formed the principal battlegrounds of these talks – treatment of “sensitive” farm products and provision of agricultural subsidies (referred to as “domestic support”). Developing nations, for whom the Doha Round was initially aimed to benefit most, were reluctant to expose many of their products to competition from globalized trade, while the major trading partners – such as the United States and the EU – differed on the amount of reductions to domestic supports that they could politically bear. The United States had previously made some far-reaching proposals in the area of domestic supports, and appeared ready to conclude an agreement of “historic” proportions. Some trading partners were reluctant – or politically unable – to move too far down the road of the U.S. proposals, while other trading partners were pushing the U.S. to move further, asserting that the American proposals were more show than real. While an agreement on a modest agenda could probably have been achieved within the context of the Doha Round talks, the U.S. in particular was not prepared to accept a “Doha Lite” conclusion.
U.S. “fast track” or trade promotion authority (TPA) procedures establish a de facto deadline on concluding a Doha Round agreement. Under TPA, the Administration has been granted authority to negotiate trade agreements that can be presented for a yea-or-nay vote by Congress without amendments. An unamendable deal is considered essential for multilateral (and indeed even bilateral) negotiations since our trading partners would be extremely reluctant to strike a bargain knowing that it can be unraveled during the course of Congressional consideration. The President’s TPA is currently set to expire in mid-2007, which leaves precious little time for an agreement to be concluded.
While it is possible that this weekend’s events may turn out to be the necessary pressure point that forces the parties to modify their stringent positions and strike a grand bargain, the distances to be bridged may well be too far.
We will continue to keep Members advised.
