Kathmandu, September 20:

Trade experts and researchers from the South Asia region have urged developing countries (DCs) to be united in achieving the goals set by the July package 2004. They also assailed developed countries for not adhering to the spirit of the Doha Round by their uncompromising stance on multilateral trade negotiations. As a result, a breakthrough in any of these issues had not been arrived at so far. South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) organised ‘a national consultation on WTO Doha Round & South Asia: Linking civil society with trade negotiations’.

The consultation is part of a multi-stakeholder pro-cess, which would help in taking inputs on issues being discussed under the Doha Round of the WTO. During the consultations, researchers from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka presented papers on five issues of agriculture, non-agriculture market access, services, trade facilitation and development dimension. The General Council of the WTO members, when adopting the July Package 2004, took up these issues for negotiations. The issues will also be the focus of negotiations during the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference to be held from December 13-18 in Hong Kong.

Dr Posh Raj Pandey, president, SAWTEE, spoke about the implications of agriculture of July Package for Nepal. He said that reduction in domestic support was a double-edged sword and should be considered on a case-by-case scenario. Prof J George, faculty of economics and development planning at Haryana Institute of Public Administration spoke about the need to understand the complementarities that exist between agricultural countries and the common issues that can be put forward during negotiations.

Presenting a paper on NAMA negotiations, Navin Dahal, executive director at SAWTEE, highlighted the restrictions on policy space for developing countries that was inherent if they were to make high-level binding commitments on tariff reduction in industrial goods.

Tariff peaks, tariff escalation and non-tariff barriers in developed countries continue to hamper industrialisation prospects in developing countries. Developed countries were still not providing market access to products from developing countries, he said. Pranav Kumar, policy analyst at Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) International, Jaipur; spoke on trade in services. Although the South Asian WTO members have advantages in various areas, he said that temporary movement of natural persons should be the common position of South Asian WTO members.

Presenting a paper on trade facilitation, Jayanthi Thennakoon, Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Colombo highlighted the trade facilitation proposals of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Although South Asian countries do not dispute the benefits of trade facilitation, the concerns are cost of implementation and clarification regarding special and differential treatment (S&DT) for capacity building, she said.

Pranav Kumar also presented a paper on development dimension, which is a crosscutting issue covering all WTO agreements. This issue is vital to preserve and protect the interests of developing countries in general and least developed countries (LDCS) in particular.