17. Memorandum submitted by Members
of the South African Parliament
THE DOHA "DEVELOPMENT ROUND": PRIORITIES
AND PROSPECTS
DOHA AND
DEVELOPMENT: AN
AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE
— Point of departure NEPAD—the
development programme of AU
— NEPAD is a comprehensive, multi-faceted
and multi-sectoral programme that seeks to identify steps necessary
for Africa to achieve GDP growth above 7% and halve the proportion
of people living in absolute poverty by 2015.
NEPAD MARKET ACCESS
INITIATIVE
— NEPAD includes a "Market Access
Initiative" (MAI)
— MAI seeks to promote greater diversity
of African exports and higher value added exports
— MAI identifies a range of actions,
including steps by African countries and efforts to promote regional
integration.
— MAI also identifies need for changes
in world trading system:
— These must enhance open, predictable
and geographically diversified market access for African exports
— Must provide a forum for Africa to
collectively put its demand "for structural adjustment by
developed countries in those industries in which the natural competitive
advantage now lies with the developing world".
— Must enhance transparency and predictability
to encourage investment to boost capacity in sectors able to benefit
from increased market access
— Must provide technical assistance
and support to enable Africa more effectively to use WTO
— Must ensure that multi-lateral liberalisation
does not erode gains of arrangements like EU's EBA, and US's AGOA
— Must address Non Tariff Barriers.
THE CASE
OF AFRICAN
COUNTRIES
— The process of multi-lateral trade
liberalisation has been uneven and unequal
— Developing countries have undertaken
very significant real liberalisation involving disproportionately
high adjustment costs
— This of itself has not led to any
significant additional inflow of resources or investment to support
addressing of supply capacity constraints.
— Barriers continue to restrict access
to developed country markets for products where developing countries
have a competitive advantage—agriculture, clothing and textiles,
low tech manufactures
— As average tariffs come down, other
mechanisms assume increasing importance. These include:
Non-Tariff Barriers
— Tariff peaks and escalations on products
of export interest to developing countries
— Subsidies, particularly on agricultural
products
— Technical barriers to trade—mechanisms
that have a real social rationale, but are applied as "protectionist"
devices and which are available to developed countries in ways
that are not available to developing countries.
The Magnitude of Such Measures
— Agricultural subsidies worth more
than GDP of Africa—an EU cow lives on $3 a day, many people
in Africa on less than $2.
— US $700 billion could be added to
earnings in low tech and resource based industries by removing
barriers (Unctad, 1999)
— All this underpinned by uneven and
unequal negotiating processes: capacity constraints leading to
poor participation by developing countries, skewed interpretation
of rules etc.
AFRICA'S
NEEDS
— An asymmetrical and development focussed
process addressing the needs of developing countries rather than
more generalised liberalisation
— Processes to build capacity of developing
countries to participate in multi-lateral negotiations
— The complementing of trade reforms
with measures to boost supply capacity.
— Enhanced real market access
for products where developing countries have competitive advantage,
implemented on an asymmetrical and preferential basis
— Elements include addressing tariff
peaks and escalations, subsidies, rules, tbts—and not allowing
removal of one form of barrier to be replaced by another.
PARTIAL ACCOMMODATION
IN DOHA
Declaration
— Doha Declaration says needs and interests
of developing countries will be at the heart of the work programme,
and refers to enhanced market access, balanced rules, technical
assistance and capacity building
— Agricultural negotiations commit
to "substantial improvements in market access; reductions
of, with a view to phasing out, all forms of export subsidies;
and substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support".
— Non-Agricultural Market Access will
aim "by modalities to be agreed, to reduce or as appropriate
eliminate tariffs, including reduction or elimination of tariff
peaks, high tariffs and tariff escalation, as well as ntbs, in
particular on products of export interest to developing countries"
— Provisions for SDT will be reviewed,
a special programme for LDCs will receive priority attention,
agreement on outstanding implementation issues will be sought
as a "matter of priority", Trips and Public Health.
— But, WTO a member driven organisation;
its agenda a shmorgasbord
— Several commitments to developing
countries contain ambiguities, and issues of concern to developing
countries have to compete with other issues of concern to developed
countries eg trade in services, Singapore issues.
POST-DOHA
PROCESSES
— Focus must now be on detailed negotiations—"the
angels are in the generalities, the devils are in the details"
— Time frames agreed at Doha have generally
not been met—a matter of concern
— The least progress has been made
with issues of importance to developing countries—a matter
of greater concern.
— The "development round"
envisaged as proceeding from implementation, SDT, Trips and public
health to more contested issues of agriculture: agriculture central
— Progress expected on all of these
issues by Cancu«n
— Deadlines for implementation issues
and STD not met
— Pressure from US pharmaceuticals
holding up implementation of Declaration on Trips and Public Health.
POST-DOHA
PROCESSES: AGRICULTURE
— Agricultural negotiations appear
deadlocked: Harbinson text records "positions in key areas
remained far apart"
— Modalities proposed fall short of
what is needed to create basis for genuine developmental outcome
— Does not address tariff peaks and
escalations, proposes only average tariff cuts.
— Proposals on subsidies will require
very little or significant adjustments—EC proposal of "average
reduction" of 45% will allow flexibility on selection of
products which undercut certainty and can damage markets for developing
countries
— Insufficient progress in EU CAP reform
appears to be major factor, but US Farm Act also a step in the
wrong direction.
POST-DOHA:
OTHER ISSUES
— Uncertainty about multi-lateralism
in the post-Iraq war world may be impacting on process; a de
facto shift towards bilateralism with a proliferation of FTA
negotiations
— Prospects for Cancu«n look disappointing,
but it is a mid-term review.
THE CHALLENGES
FOR PARLIAMENTARIANS
— Development focussed multilateralism
remains an imperative for Africa
— Bringing Doha back to something recognisable
as a "development round" will require massive political
mobilisation
— Issues now embedded in the "technocracy"
need to be brought into the arena of political oversight and debate
— A parliamentary dimension can enhance
this.
June 2003
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