Will DOHA development round benefit Africa?
 
2008-02-17 10:01:43
By Theo Mushi

Tanzania and other members of the East African Community are participants in WTO negotiations under the DOHA round which started in 2001 and are due to be conducted this year.

The World Trade organization was formed in 1995 to supervise multilateral trade liberalisation which is expected to lead to increase in value of total World Trade leading to higher output and employment.

In 2001 the least developed countries met in Zanzibar and came up with the Zanzibar Declaration.

It called for removal of price distorting subsidies given to farmers in EU and USA. The LDCs are reluctant to liberalise their agricultural sector.

They have called for support to remove supply side constraints in form of aid to upgrade standard of goods to meet EU conditions regarding health phytosanitary conditions.

Liberalization of the agricultural sector and Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) are subjects of negotiations in the ongoing DOHA development round which has now dragged for more than six years.

Singapore issues such as investment, competition and trade in service are not in the current agenda but are part of demands by the industrialized north.

Economists have noted that DOHA so-called development round penalizes the poor. They also note that multilateral trade system has failed to address developing countries interests.

The example being mentioned is agriculture as developed countries of EU and USA continue to legitimize subsidies given to producers while developing countries are being forced to open their markets rendering themselves defenseless against dumping.

The reality is that export subsidies of USA and EU will be returned but they will merely be transparent and legal with WTO system through certain loopholes.

The emphasis in DOHA has not been development issues for the poor countries but market access for industrialized countries.

Developing countries like Brazil, China and India play a greater role in trade talks but the interests of the poor nations still seem to be an afterthought in many ways.

US domestic supports are more than $70 billion per annum while EU subsidies range around $ 88 billion.

EU and USA say that they will cut subsidies up to 70 percent but a closer look reveals that this is not really the case and those countries are simply cutting waters.

They are shifting support to the WTO legal category. There are no limits in the WTO on the amount of subsidies countries can provide.

According to 2001 figures US provides $ 52 billion in the green book (WTO) which is 70 percent of their support. EU is reforming policy so that producers can be given direct payments.

EU is shifting about 90 percent of renewed subsidies into the WTO category.

EU is pushing for more cuts which are more aggressive for developing countries than developed countries placing the burden on the poor countries.

Theo Mushi is a writer on economic issues

• SOURCE: Sunday Observer