Roberto Azevedo is a very optimistic diplomat. It is an attitude he has cultivated over a long period as a career diplomat representing his country, Brazil, in high-profile missions. But he will need an extra muscle to sustain his expectation of a good outcome from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Tenth Ministerial Conference that kicks off in Nairobi next Tuesday. In his two years as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General, he has used every available opportunity to exude confidence that members of the trade organisation will finally end a trade dispute that has pitted rich nations and poor nations since 2001.
His optimism will be severely tested in the face of a possible explosion of the organisation that he took over leadership in 2013. An explosion because both rich and poor nations are increasingly losing patience with the WTO as a platform to make global trade serve or protect their economic interests. The heart of the disillusionment with the WTO is the obstinate refusal by rich nations which include the US, Canada, Japan and European Union to abolish trading policies in agriculture and food security, and intellectual property rights that give them advantage over poor nations.
The negotiations to end these trading practices are referred to as the Doha Development Agenda or simply the Doha Round because they started in Doha, Qatar in 2001. Developing nations want rich countries to put an end to agricultural subsidies which give their farmers an unfair advantage against those from developing countries. They also want rich nations to open up their markets to African produce and also appropriate protection from dumping of agricultural produce from rich nations on their markets. They are also seeking independence in regulating food security and health, and educational services.
Rich nations on the other hand, frustrated by the slow pace of negotiations for liberalisation of trade at WTO have been pursuing multilateral agreements to hasten the arrival of free trade. In East Africa, European Union has been aggressively marketing, sometimes arm twisting regional government officials to sign a trade agreement that it passes as Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The US on the other hand has already signed its own two plurilateral agreements; Transpacific Partnership (TPP) with ASEAN nations and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with European Union. In the countdown to the Nairobi meeting, all indications are that like in all other previous meetings — in Seattle, USA and Cancun, Mexico — where the meetings ended with no agreements and walk out by poor nations.
The clash that will characterise the meeting is already clear with two blocks staking out hard line positions. Poor nations led by China, India, Russia, Venezuela, South Africa, and Kenya have insisted that the Nairobi meeting must have meaningful progress. On the other hand, rich nations want Doha Round to be closed in Nairobi unless countries like China, India and Russia are graduated from poor nations to rich nations. Last week, in a meeting attended by 24 trade ambassadors that Azavedo had called to gauge the thinking of members on various issues set for discussions, India, China and South Africa made it clear that they would take nothing less than the affirmation of their issues and a way forward on the Doha Round.
Kenya which is hosting the conference is very keen to have the Nairobi meeting extracting gains for African nations. In an earlier meeting held in Geneva to prepare for the Nairobi conference, Foreign Affairs cabinet secretary Amina Mohammed made it clear that Kenya would be sticking its head with developing nations and stated that the Doha Round cannot be concluded without credible development outcomes in
Source: Media Max

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