EU Parliament - Doha Development Round Report

MEPs will debate an own-initiative report from Javier MORENO SÁNCHEZ (PES, ES) for the International Trade Committee on the assessment of the Doha Round following the WTO Agreement signed in Geneva on 1 August 2004. The Doha Round of global trade negotiations (Doha Development Agenda) launched in November 2001 at the WTO's Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, mandated negotiations on a range of issues for trade reform and set out enhanced and better rules to improve worldwide trade and investment, while placing development at the centre of the process. The Agreement establishes a framework for advancing the Agenda after the unsuccessful ministerial meeting in Cancun in 2003.

The report underlines that rapid progress in the areas covered by the Agreement is vital for the success of the Hong Kong ministerial conference, set for December 2005. The integration of developing countries into the world trade market, including special provision for the least Developed Countries (LDCs) as an integral part of the Doha Agenda, is reaffirmed throughout the report.

Agriculture

Increased market access for products from developing countries is seen as crucial to poverty reduction. Agriculture is widely viewed as the most important chapter of the agreement and the driving force for further reform.

The progress made in the three pillars - domestic aids, market access and export subsidies - with the aim of establishing a fair and market-oriented trading system by addressing trade-distorting policies, incorporates special and differential treatment provisions (SDT) as an integral part of the new formula. At the same time, the Least Developed Countries and other weak or vulnerable developing countries are not bound to further open up their markets where developed countries are. In addition, the committee suggests adding a development dimension, or 'box', to negotiations on agriculture for the LDCs. However, MEPs stress the need to strike a balance. Given the prospect of destabilised Community markets, they called for a specific definition of what constitutes a 'sensitive product' for the purpose of the harmonisation formula. On the issue of the elimination of export subsidies, Members in the committee support a balanced phasing-out with full parallelism in the application of all three pillars among developed-country WTO members so as not to disadvantage the EU.

With the inclusion of cotton in the agriculture negotiations, the committee supports the intention to deal with this issue in a far-reaching, rapid and specific manner, which included the setting up of a specific subcommittee, but recommends specific deadlines in the application of measures.

Services

The EU is the world's leading exporter and importer of services. Given the huge potential for economic development that would flow from a liberalised services market, the committee deplored the absence of a specific agreement on services and called for negotiations to be stepped up, in particular to establish what constitutes adequate tariff reduction. In this same spirit, it also urged WTO members to table revised, high quality offers by the May 2005 deadline so that any liberalisation of the sector would not be levelled-down. MEPs in the committee are against deregulation or privatisation of services of public interest, including health, education, and audio-visual services, instead calling for a cautious approach to liberalisation in this area.

Trade facilitation

While MEPs in the committee welcome the start of negotiations on this issue, they were keen not to exclude from wider WTO discussion those Singapore Issues of investment, competition and transparency in government procurement that had been left off the agenda following the Cancun failure. Similarly, they call for progress in the fields not covered by the agreement. For example, rules on anti-dumping and subsidies, TRIPs, and the environmental dimension of international trade and geographical indications.

Development

The committee supports the integration of developing countries, including the strengthening of provisions for Special and Differential Treatment (SDT). It emphasised the need to address the specific challenges faced by the LDCs and link the Doha Round with the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. MEPs affirm the need for technical assistance and capacity building to be stepped-up in order to facilitate the integration of developing countries into the world market, and asked for more attention to South-South trade given its development potential.

Finally, the report calls for further reform of the WTO in line with the Sutherland Report, and calls on the WTO and other international organisations to establish closer relations with the aim of achieving a different, more sustainable type of globalisation, as recognised in the Millennium Declaration.

| Arriba |

• The Doha Round - State of Play March 2005 (10/3/2005)
• EU tables revised requests in services negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda of the WTO (25/1/2005)
• Commissioner Mandelson's Speech 'Putting development first - EU-ACP relations, EPAs and the Doha Round' (6/1/2005)