South Centre

WTO Mini-Ministerial Collapses

Mini-ministerial meet of 30 countries in Geneva attempting to reach an accord on liberalising markets in agriculture and industrial goods to salvage the Doha trade round collapses on day nine.

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For the ongoing WTO Mini-Ministerial meeting in Geneva, the South Centre is issuing a series of analytical briefs to inform its constituency of the developments at the meeting.  

Process of the On-Going WTO Mini-Ministerial Negotiations of July 2008

The intense ministerial-level negotiations going on among some Members at the WTO since last week are once again showcasing classic processes used in the past to hammer out trade agreements that have, by and large, benefited developed countries more than developing countries.

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Issue 4, 27 July 2008

The Lamy text of 25 July with numbers proposed by the Secretariat will not give comfort to developing countries in terms of the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM). Overall, the text weighs in favour of the interests of the developed countries and in the area of the SSM, disadvantages developing countries.

 No. 4, 27 July 2008

Issue 3, 25 July 2008

On 23 July 2008, Ambassador Fernando de Mateo (Mexico), Chairman of the Services Negotiations, circulated a revised report on the elements required for the completion of the services negotiations. This revised report is based on the annex to the report contained in WTO document TN/S/33 of 26 May 2008. This report sets a tentative 15 October 2008 date for submitting revised offers.

Ahead of the signaling conference (if one takes place), this update comments on the revised draft specifically pointing out areas that are problematic for developing countries.

 No. 3, 25 July 2008

Issue 2, 23 July 2008

Two key meetings took place yesterday at the WTO. A ‘Walk in the Woods’ convened by the agriculture Chair, Crawford Falconer in the morning, and a Green Room meeting convened by Pascal Lamy at about 4pm which ran till 10 pm. According to various reports, the US Trade Representative Susan Schwab made very strong statements in the Green Room meeting as she outlined her expectations of developing countries in exchange for their ‘offer’ of pegging their overall trade distorting supports (OTDS) at 15 billion.

 No. 2, 23 July 2008

Issue 1, 22 July 2008

Central to the talks in Geneva this week is a safeguard mechanism that the G33, a coalition of 46 developing countries have proposed. The current text of 17 July, which ministers are discussing this week, provides a safeguard that could very well be toothless in terms of curbing import surges.

 No. 1, 22 July 2008