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WTO moves closer to UN
By
Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA - Feeling the pressure
of the uncertainty hanging over the international
economy, the World Trade Organization (WTO) will work in
closer cooperation with the United Nations to tackle the
challenge of the new round of multilateral trade talks.
Another factor that has influenced the WTO's
shift towards closer collaboration with the broader
United Nations system is the presence of its new
director-general, Supachai Panitchpakdi, who assumed the
post five weeks ago.
Supachai said that in the
complex process of the new round of talks, he did not
see any chance that the WTO on its own could possibly
aspire to achieving the goals set by its member nations,
such as the generation of improved opportunities for the
involvement of developing countries in the global
market.
"We can only work with our friends in
various international institutions that have similar
goals, similar aspirations, and also the resources to
complement our efforts," he underlined.
The
former deputy prime minister and commerce minister of
Thailand is the first person from the developing South
to head the organization responsible for overseeing the
multilateral system of trade.
Since its creation
in 1995, the WTO has been headed by representatives of
industrialized nations. Renato Ruggiero, from Italy,
held the post of director-general until 1999, and his
successor, Mike Moore, from New Zealand, ended his stint
on August 31.
Under its first two chiefs, the
WTO maintained merely formal relations with United
Nations agencies. And in remarks made in an unofficial
capacity, WTO functionaries made no attempt to conceal
their pleasure with that independence and
self-sufficiency.
But on the very first day of
his mandate, Supachai announced that the WTO would work
more closely with agencies like the UN Development
Program (UNDP), the UN Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO), the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), the World Bank, and especially the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
With respect to reaching a "real understanding"
of the issues of interest to developing nations in
various trade-related areas, Supachai said that it was
UNCTAD that could fill the gap that the WTO would not be
able to fill in the short term.
At a meeting
this week of the Trade and Development Board, which
governs UNCTAD while the conference is in recess,
Supachai alluded to the difficulties that have arisen in
the "difficult adjustment period" that the world is
currently experiencing.
The WTO director-general
noted that despite the overall sense of economic
uncertainty, the multilateral trade system must make
real progress in the talks launched at the
organization's fourth ministerial conference, held in
November 2001 in Doha, Qatar.
For his part,
UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero pointed out
that in a world that is facing "so many risks, so many
uncertainties, not only in economic terms, but in
security terms," development issues run the risk of once
more being pushed to the backburner. He called for a
strengthening of the multilateral approach to coming up
with constructive solutions to today's global problems.
Given the current circumstances, the "field of
trade" had luckily been one of the few areas where
multilateral approaches had continued to predominate, he
added. But in order to uphold the value of the
multilateral trading system, "it is imperative that
these trade negotiations conclude successfully, and on
time, without any unnecessary delays," Ricupero
underlined.
The new Doha Round of talks is aimed
at the opening of markets in areas such as agriculture,
manufactured products, services, and trade-related
intellectual property rights. The deadlines for the
negotiations, which also focus on trade and the
environment, investment, competition, the conditions of
the least developed countries and small economies, is
January 1, 2005.
But Supachai acknowledged this
week in the UNCTAD board meeting that some negotiations
had already fallen behind schedule, such as the talks on
special and differentiated treatment, a mechanism that
recognizes the varying levels of development of WTO
members when it comes to the liberalization of trade.
The WTO's fifth ministerial conference is slated
for September 2003 in the Mexican resort city of Cancun.
Supachai said that he saw the meeting as a sort of
"mid-term review" of the Doha round. But "the
substantive part of the negotiations" should be worked
out before Cancun, he warned. "If we leave too many
things to Cancun, I don't think we would be seeing the
end of the round in time."
Supachai advised the
WTO's 144 member states to avoid using delaying tactics
to improve their bargaining positions, because the talks
are governed by the idea of the "single undertaking",
which means no agreement will be reached until every
issue has been agreed, with no exceptions.
Ricupero offered the WTO total support from
UNCTAD experts in the endeavor to provide developing
countries with whatever assistance they needed in the
talks.
(Inter Press Service)
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