Members asking to build on “enormous progress” for final agreement — Lamy
11 Sep 2008
Director-General Pascal Lamy, in his address to the Annual Parliamentary Conference of the WTO in Geneva on 11 September 2008, urged parliamentarians “to help us close the July package”. “While it has become clear that we cannot complete the Doha Round by the end of this year, let us at least aim to complete the modalities in 2008, so as to conclude the Round in 2009”. This is what he said:
Ladies and gentlemen,
This year I am the bearer of — how should I put it — “news that is not all that good!” You, the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO, have been following our work, and in particular the Doha Development Agenda, closely since its launch in 2001. The Doha Round which took almost 7 years of negotiations had been widely expected to bridge an important “milestone” towards its conclusion at the Ministerial meeting convened this July.
The meeting was expected to adopt “modalities” for agricultural, and industrial goods, and to make progress in the services negotiations. In WTO jargon, “modalities” mean the parameters on whose basis Members would establish their new commitments, whether in terms of lower tariffs, subsidies, or new disciplines.
The meeting did not succeed. It collapsed to the detriment of a world economy that is much in need of a bit of blue sky; to the detriment of the poor who would have benefited the most from the lowering of prices that trade opening brings about; and to the detriment of the developing world who has fought long and hard to bring greater equity to international rules, in particular to the field of its greatest comparative advantage; agriculture.
I often hear it said that one of the greatest flaws of the WTO is that it does not deal with inequality at the national level. It opens markets, and then claims that its role ends there, passing the bucket to governments to deal with winners and losers. This, in my view, does not fully reflect reality.
Had the July package stabilized, much greater equity would have been brought about. Few realize that through the opening of markets, trade does more to making basic goods and services accessible to the poor than many income redistribution policies. Throughout history, trade has enhanced the purchasing power of the poor across the globe, enabling them with their limited dollars, to buy more for less. Thanks to more open markets a basic T-shirt that would have cost $3 dollars behind a tariff wall, can today cost less than half or even a third of that price.
Read The Entire Speech...
Source: WTO
This year I am the bearer of — how should I put it — “news that is not all that good!” You, the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO, have been following our work, and in particular the Doha Development Agenda, closely since its launch in 2001. The Doha Round which took almost 7 years of negotiations had been widely expected to bridge an important “milestone” towards its conclusion at the Ministerial meeting convened this July.
The meeting was expected to adopt “modalities” for agricultural, and industrial goods, and to make progress in the services negotiations. In WTO jargon, “modalities” mean the parameters on whose basis Members would establish their new commitments, whether in terms of lower tariffs, subsidies, or new disciplines.
The meeting did not succeed. It collapsed to the detriment of a world economy that is much in need of a bit of blue sky; to the detriment of the poor who would have benefited the most from the lowering of prices that trade opening brings about; and to the detriment of the developing world who has fought long and hard to bring greater equity to international rules, in particular to the field of its greatest comparative advantage; agriculture.
I often hear it said that one of the greatest flaws of the WTO is that it does not deal with inequality at the national level. It opens markets, and then claims that its role ends there, passing the bucket to governments to deal with winners and losers. This, in my view, does not fully reflect reality.
Had the July package stabilized, much greater equity would have been brought about. Few realize that through the opening of markets, trade does more to making basic goods and services accessible to the poor than many income redistribution policies. Throughout history, trade has enhanced the purchasing power of the poor across the globe, enabling them with their limited dollars, to buy more for less. Thanks to more open markets a basic T-shirt that would have cost $3 dollars behind a tariff wall, can today cost less than half or even a third of that price.
Read The Entire Speech...
Source: WTO
