Durante su visita a la República Unida de Tanzanía el 25 de marzo de 2013, el nuevo presidente de China, Xi Jinping, se reunió con el expresidente tanzano y actual presidente de la Junta del Centro del Sur, Benjamin W. Mkapa.

El presidente Xi se comprometió a apoyar al Centro del Sur en el fomento de la cooperación Sur-Sur.

En una sesión muy animada celebrada en el marco del Foro Público de la OMC, embajadores de países en desarrollo y otros expertos expusieron sus opiniones acerca del estancamiento en las negociaciones de la Ronda de Doha de la OMC, la «nueva concepción del comercio» promovida por los principales países desarrollados y la necesidad de plantear una concepción alternativa que refleje la realidad desde la perspectiva de los países en desarrollo.

Analytical Note, December 2011

This Analytical Note provides an overview of the following: issues at stake in MC8 for developing countries and key messages for Ministers; the state of play including the main events that took place in the production of the ‘Elements for Political Guidance’ text; the legal status of the Chairman’s Statement as the outcome document of the Ministerial; important process issues to be mindful of during the Ministerial; a detailed look at the issues in the ‘Elements for Political Guidance’ text; and a paragraph by paragraph analysis of the ‘Elements’ text.

Analytical Note, November 2011

This Note is an analysis of the draft waiver decision submitted by the Chairman of the CTS to Ministers for adoption at the 8th Ministerial Conference. This is essentially a waiver from the most-favoured nation treatment clause (Article II. 1) in GATS to allow Members to provide preferential and more favourable treatment to services and services suppliers of LDCs. Two main issues have arisen in the draft waiver text. Firstly the types of preferences covered by the waiver, in order to be effective, needs to go beyond market access measures. The second issue is that of rules of origin. There is need to clarify the meaning of rules of origin in the waiver.

Informe sobre políticas, noviembre de 2011

La Declaración de Doha reafirmó el derecho de los Estados miembros de la OMC a hacer uso de las flexibilidades relativas a la salud pública previstas en el Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC. Sin embargo, tanto los países en desarrollo como los países menos adelantados (PMA) enfrentan importantes dificultades al momento aplicar dichas flexibilidades.

El objetivo de este informe sobre políticas es examinar qué nivel de aplicación ha tenido la Declaración de Doha en los diez años posteriores a su adopción y cuáles son los obstáculos que se presentan al intentar aplicar las flexibilidades previstas en el Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC con miras a asegurar el acceso a medicamentos asequibles.

Analytical Notes, June 2011

1)  Key Overview Paper: Present Situation of the WTO Doha Talks and Comments on the 21 April 2011 Documents

WTO released on 21 April 2011, a 600-page package providing an overview of the last 10 years of Doha negotiations. This paper is an analysis of this overall package. Although Doha started as a “Development Agenda” with a pledge that developing countries’ interests would be at the centre, ironically there is hardly any development content left in the Doha elements. The agricultural deal has side-stepped the major issue of subsidies by developed countries. Special and Differential Treatment (S&D) for developing countries such as the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) is practically inoperable and ineffective. There are no results in cotton. In NAMA, the packaged is imbalanced and problematic in terms of the shrinking of developing countries’ policy space to carry out much needed industrialisation. The services report puts a ‘necessity test’ back in as an option in the domestic regulation negotiations. Key areas of interest to developing countries have been sidelined – Article XXIV; S&D and Implementation issues.

La gran distancia que separa las posiciones de los miembros de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) hace difícil que los dirigentes del Grupo de los Veinte (G-20) puedan cumplir su promesa de terminar este año las negociaciones de la Ronda de Doha.

La actual ronda de negociaciones de Doha comenzó a finales de 2001 y fue llamada entonces el Programa de Doha para el Desarrollo. La Declaración Ministerial de Doha proclamó que las necesidades de los países en desarrollo se situaban en el centro de las negociaciones.

Policy Brief, November 2009

As trade ministers prepare to assemble November 30 in Geneva for further WTO talks, they are hearing another round of new and refurbished projections of how much wealthier the world might be after liberalizing trade.  The upcoming ministerial is no different, and neither, fundamentally, are the projections, notwithstanding one recent claim that an ambitious Doha deal could deliver $300-$700 billion in global welfare gains, with the benefits "well-balanced" between developed and developing countries.

These recent projections, from the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, contrast with the World Bank's widely publicized 2005 estimates of global gains from a "likely Doha scenario" of less than $100 billion, with just $16 billion going to developing countries.  Did economists find another $150-$350 billion in benefits for developing countries that the World Bank missed in 2005?  Is development back in the Doha Round. The answer, of course, is no.  The purpose of this policy brief is to look behind the press releases to examine the recent economic projections, review previous estimates, and put these seemingly large numbers in their proper context.  As before, the claims that developing countries will be the big winners from Doha rest on shaky assumptions, controversial economic modeling, misleading representations of the benefits, and disregard for the high costs of Doha-style liberalization for many developing countries

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Research Paper 30, May 2010, Updated in February 2012

This paper discusses the principles and scope of activities of the world trade organization, addresses the imbalances in the existing rules and the problems faced by developing countries. Then it elaborated on various specific issues such as, the “Singapore issues”, labour and environmental standards, the “development issues”, market access negotiations and, at last, its functioning in decision-making system.

Documento Analítico - febrero de 2006

Resumen

En el Análisis de la Declaración Ministerial de Hong Kong, realizado por el Centro del Sur, se evalúan los desarrollos alcanzados respecto del Programa de Trabajo de Doha desde el lanzamiento de la ronda, se examinan las consecuencias de la Declaración Ministerial de Hong Kong y se identifican algunas cuestiones de importancia estratégica para los países en desarrollo, que es necesario considerar en las negociaciones ulteriores. En el presente documento se ofrece un análisis de los sectores de agricultura y de acceso a los mercados para los productos no agrícolas.

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South Centre Analytical Note - September 2004

INTRODUCTION

On 31 July 2004, the WTO General Council decided to establish a framework for continued negotiations under the Doha Work Programme set out in the Doha Ministerial Declaration (DMD, WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1) of 2001. This note seeks to present a content analysis of the WTO General Council Decision of 31 July 2004 (WT/GC/W/535).

The analysis of the main text of the July Decision in the first part of this Analytical Note is arranged according to the substantive issue areas identified in the DMD for either negotiations or discussions as linked to the relevant texts in the July 2004 General Council Decision. It also identifies the new negotiating timeframes established for each negotiating area and provides a brief analytical comment on the extent to which the July 2004 Decision impacts on the original Doha mandates.

For ease of use, the Analytical Note has been divided into four main parts. Part I analyzes the main text of the July Decision, followed by Parts II, III, and IV, devoted to the analysis of Annex A (Agriculture), Annex B (Non-Agricultural Market Access), and Annex D (Trade Facilitation), respectively, of the July Decision.

It is hoped that this note will be useful to readers as the implementation of the mandates in the July Decision proceed after the summer of 2004.

 Part I (Main text - A Content Analysis)

 Part II (Annex A, Agriculture Modalities)

 Part III (Annex B, NAMA Modalities)

 Part IV (Trade Facilitation Modalities)

South Centre Analytical Note - June 2003

INTRODUCTION

Paragraph 51 of the 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration provides a unique but ambiguous mandate for the WTO’s Committees on Trade and Development (CTD) and on Trade and Environment (CTE). It requires that these two bodies “within their respective mandates, each act as a forum to identify and debate developmental and environmental aspects of the negotiations, in order to help achieve the objective of having sustainable development appropriately reflected.” This mandate attempts to implement WTO Members’ desire to ensure that the Doha Round trade negotiations promote the objective of sustainable development.

This objective is deeply embedded in the WTO framework. Explicit references to it can be found in the WTO’s constitutional legal instrument – the Marrakesh Agreement to Establish the World Trade Organisation – and in subsequent WTO legal texts, such as the 1994 Ministerial Decisions on Trade and Environment and on Trade in Services and the Environment, and the 1996 and 2001 WTO Ministerial Declarations. The WTO Appellate Body in the US – Shrimps-Turtle dispute also stated that the objective of sustainable development recognised in the WTO Agreement’s preamble “informs” all of the covered agreements.

The proper and effective implementation of the Paragraph 51 mandate could be the key to ensuring that the Doha trade negotiations result in a final outcome that promotes the sustainable development needs and priorities of developing countries and is consistent with the earth’s long-term ecological carrying capacity from the local to the global level.

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South Centre Analytical Note - May 2002

BACKGROUND (excerpt)

By placing Special and Differential Treatment (hereafter referred to as ‘S&DT’) at the heart of the WTO Agreements, the Doha Ministerial Declaration explicitly acknowledged that S&DT is a fully accepted core principle in the WTO legal regime.

Special and Differential Treatment should not be understood as a set of concessions made in favour of developing countries -- and the objectives recalled in the preamble of the Doha Ministerial Declaration are clear about this-- but as a right that these countries acquired in order to have a chance of participating in the multilateral trading system.

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