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The Ingram Column: Open Necks and Hard Talk Bring Results on Trade

27 November 2005

Derek Ingram - My View

The Hon Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore (left) and HRH Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Special Envoy for HM the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, at the start of the Second Retreat Session

If you wanted to see a president in open neck and slacks loping across the room on Saturday to fetch a cup of coffee and a biscuit for another head of state you would have had to gatecrash the Commonwealth Retreat.
Except, there's not much chance of that.

The leaders were isolated in their hotel in Malta's Golden Bay for what began to shape up as one of the most successful political Retreats since they were invented 32 years ago.

The business on trade and the Doha Round was serious, but the atmosphere was just so good, with everyone laughing and joking. As the talking went on, the going got frank. But, as Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said: "The beauty of the Retreat formula is that leaders feel free to say anything they like - and they are sometimes quite rude."

The result was better than anyone dared expect - a tough statement addressed to the World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong which will be held in two weeks' time. The Doha Development Agenda of the WTO, the statement said, "provides an unprecedented opportunity to cement in place a rules-based and equitable international trading system."

The leaders reminded the WTO that they represent one quarter of the world's population and one-fifth of global trade.

This includes some of the poorest and wealthiest as well as some of the smallest and largest states in the world representing every continent and ocean of the globe.

The leaders said they were deeply concerned about the pace of the talks; "…the outcome of the Doha Round must be based on higher ambitions than are currently evident," they said.

The statement, pointing out that "agriculture is the most distorted sector of world trade," said the offer made by the US should meet a response from the European Union (EU) and others who maintain high levels of agricultural production in the same spirit.

In Hong Kong, the WTO should reach agreement on the elimination of all forms of export subsidies by 2010.

On sugar, the Commonwealth leaders talked of the adverse implications of the EU's recent announcement of reform to its sugar regime for several vulnerable Commonwealth countries in terms of its impact on jobs, incomes and export earnings.

They said: "We urge the EU to provide transitional financial arrangements in which there is symmetry between compensation provided to these Commonwealth sugar producers on th one hand and EU producers on the other." For those small states unable to adjust to the timetable, compensation should be delivered "in an efficient and timely fashion."

During a Retreat no one is allowed on the floor where the leaders are meeting except Secretary-General Don McKinnon and an assistant who takes notes. The few delegation officials in Golden Bay have to stay on the floor above in case their boss wants a bit of information or quick advice.
By getting the leaders totally alone for much of two days, a Commonwealth chemistry develops. A most important factor is that they are all speaking English. No interpreters are needed.

One ingredient of a successful Retreat is that it is held at a venue well distant from the summit sessions. Another is that there must be no officials in the room.
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who invented the Retreat, flew the leaders from Ottawa in 1973 to the skiing area of Mont Tremblant.
Years on, in 1997 the summit was in Edinburgh and the Retreat lasted less than a day. The leaders took a 50-mile train ride to Gleneagles Hotel and talked there for few hours.

Several countries complained and demanded a longer Retreat. In Coolum, Australia, in 2002 this was done, but the leaders moved physically only from one room to another in their CHOGM hotel.

This time, the ingredients seem to be just right. But as usual the only really disgruntled people are the officials. They never like to be far from their masters or mistresses. Trudeau tried to take the whole process a lot further.
He proposed an agenda item called Comparative Techniques of Government. This was a discussion between the Heads about how they organised their private offices.

Trudeau argued that presidents and prime ministers were lonely at the top and had no chance to talk to equals about such matters. The opportunity to compare notes with each other could be taken at CHOGMs.
The Commonwealth Sir Humphreys hated the idea of their system of working being talked about behind their backs. Not surprisingly, Comparative Techniques of Government never appeared on a Commonwealth summit agenda again. The officials saw to that.