“Only Microsteps”

17. Dezember 2005

Helga Flores Trejo writes:
Today in the afternoon, a revised draft declaration was distributed by the WTO Secretariate to all member states. To listen to the first reactions of developing countries, I rushed through the police controls, blockades and crowds all around the Convention Center. Since this afternoon demonstrations have been going through out the streets of the Wan Chai district (where the convention center is located), making access and movement around it rather dificult. Nevertheless, press briefings continued inside the conference venue. Although when I arrived there more people were gathered around the TV screens watching the violent events going on at the same time not too far away than they were inside the briefing rooms.

Shortly after 5.00PM the Foreign Ministers of Brazil, the Trade Minister of India and Representatives of Mexico, Argentina and Zimbabwe steped into the room. Once again, the composition of the group was a statement in itself. As Celso Amorim, Brazil’s Foreign Minister said: “This confirms the unity of the G20”. In his opinion, the G20 has shown again and again that they are a force to be reckon with and will remain like that. Although the group did not want to go into details until having been able to study the draft carefully. Brazil’s Foreign Minister said in a first reaction that “given the low expectations for Hong Kong…” there was “modest progress in some cases.. but much below of what we expected”. But the fact that no final date had been agreed on when all export subsidies would end was “a matter of disappointment”. All representatives showed their frustration with the lack of agreement on a date, as Kamal Nath, the Indian Trade Minister said “this was the most explizit, most unambigous and easiest” demand. Nevertheless the developed countries could not yet bring themselves to accept it.

Furthermore in Kamal Nath’s opinion the draft had serious flaws and he hoped that in “the next 20 hours these flaws will be corrected”.
When asked where exactly he saw the steps forward, Brazil’s Foreign Minister said that “only microsteps” were achieved. In his opinion an important achievement was the aknowledgement that advancement in NAMA should be in proportion to the progress on agriculture and taking into account the development character of the Doha Round. Even if not operational this principle of linking both issues would be a useful guiding principle.
Whether the draft will be agreed on is still an open question, but even then the change would be minimal. The small expectations on this Ministerial were best summarized by Celso Amorim, when he concluded: The meeting would maybe “not be a success but at least useful”.

Helga Flores Trejo is Executive Director of the Heinrich Boell-Foundation’s office in Washington.

Kategorie: Helga Flores Trejo