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'Failure of WTO talks could cause instability'

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -World trade ministers head for the crucial WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong this week to the backdrop of warnings that failure to strike a trade deal that benefits the world's poorest nations could trigger new dangers to global peace and security.

Mandelson. the better off developing countries need to help the more needy countries
But Peter Mandelson, the trade commssioner for the European Union (EU) was not sanguine that the December 13 to 18 meeting will provide the hoped-for break through that would help poor countries climb out of poverty.

"I have a real fear that if they fail... we will be giving many people less confidence in the international system, less to hope for and that could be very alienating for many people in the world and therefore very dangerous not only for them but for the rest of us as well," Mandelson said on Friday.

Ministers are arriving in Hong Kong with world major players, particularly the United States and the EU, still deadlocked on how fast to remove domestic farm subisides, which critics say, distort trade.

At the same time, poor countries, which are losing preferences and while pressured to open their markets to trade in services, do not believe that sufficient attention are being paid to the development issues of concern to them.

Knight. developed states need to be sensitive to the developmental needs of other states
This will be a matter of concern for Jamaica's foreign trade minister K D Knight, who has been named chief spokesman for the 79-member African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries non-agricultural market access (NAMA) at the meeting.

"The ACP is seeking to ensure that the NAMA negotiations be conducted in a manner that is sensitive to the developmental needs of member states," Knight said at the weekend.
While Knight will speak for the ACP on NAMA issues, he will be also be a part of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) ministerial team, whose agenda includes securing special and differential treatment for small, island states.

Negotiations have to spread the benefits of globalisation "more justly and more evenly" to create a more balanced world, he said. "A more stable world is a more secure world for all of us."

Mandelson said he would push "better-off developing countries" such as Brazil, India and China to open up their markets to poorer nations at the trade summit next week in Hong Kong.
"The main bulk of the tariff barriers for developing countries are not with the developed world, they are between developing countries," he said.

The EU believes the best chance for the world's least developed countries to grab some of the benefits of globalisation is to boost their trade with other developing countries.

"Trade has become freer with each decade that passes," he said. "Where it hasn't operated sufficiently is for the really needy developing countries, and that's the gear shift that we need and that I think we can make in this round."

Mandelson said the rest of the world should follow Europe's example and offer full tariff and quota-free access to goods from extremely poor countries such as Afghanistan, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

"We do this at the moment in Europe but I want the United States, Japan and other OECD countries but also to an extent the better-off developing countries like Brazil, China and India helping those who are more needy than themselves," he said.

Mandelson said he hoped China would play a more prominent role in negotiations, saying Beijing was currently keeping its head down.
"There's a sensitivity about China that I think China is feeling. But I hope that China will play not just a responsible role but also a more prominent role in trying to get agreement.

"I think they see plenty of opportunities," he said. "I think they stand to gain a lot from a successful trade round. Indeed, some people fear that China would benefit too much at their expense."

The EU wants the World Trade Organisation talks to agree on a broad package for the world's least-developed countries that will exempt them for longer from intellectual property rules and help them reach world standards for some goods.

But it does not want to yield to developing countries' demands that it make deeper cuts to farm tariffs beyond the average 46 per cent it offered in October.

Mandelson was adamant that the EU will not change its offer as its trading partners had failed to unblock stalled negotiations on industrial goods and services - an area of huge growth potential where Europe has a great deal to gain.

Source: The Jamaica Observer