EU’s mini-ministerial for select WTO nations likely

NEW DELHI: The European Union (EU) is considering hosting a mini-ministerial meeting of select World Trade Organisation (WTO) members including India, the US, Brazil, Japan and Australia ahead of the bigger meet planned on the sidelines of the World Economic Summit in Davos in January. As the Davos meeting will play a crucial role in setting the pace for the derailed Doha round of talks, the EU wants key members to discuss contentious issues before more members join in.

Speaking to ET, senior ministry officials said that it will not be easy to discuss finer aspects of issues like agriculture subsidy in a big group. “The EU wants that countries that had been taking the lead in the discussions before talks were suspended should meet informally before the Davos meet,” an official said.

The Doha round of WTO talks got derailed primarily due to the US’ refusal to take on commitments for making real cuts in their trade distorting domestic subsidies in agriculture. While developing country members including India had asked the US to agree to reduce subsidies from the existing $19 billion per annum to $14 billion per annum, the US wanted the freedom to increase subsidies to the $22 billion per annum.
Meanwhile, WTO director general Pascal Lamy has observed that if members were willing, the Doha round could be taken to its successful conclusion next year. He said that while no real changes in numbers, notably in agriculture domestic support or tariff protection have shown up in the discussions of the negotiating groups of the WTO so far, an increasing level of engagement had started to appear. Mr Lamy made the observations in his report to the General Council of the WTO.

“So, we can be ready to engage fully on substance when the time comes, we need to maintain the rhythm of the informal work, which is underway between now and the year-end break, and then increase it when we return after the break in order to exploit the window of opportunity that remains ahead of us in next year’s Q1,” he said.

The DG warned that failure could be just around the corner, but members need not turn that corner. “With everyone contributing and playing their part, we can stay on track to take this round to a successful conclusion next year,” he said.