(July 30, 2008) After more than seven years of intense negotiations, World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy announced that the Doha Development Agenda negotiations failed to move forward after trade ministers stalled in their efforts to agree on blueprint agreements in agriculture and industrial products.
The California Chamber of Commerce-supported negotiations offered United States businesses improved access to foreign markets and better rules to ensure that competition for foreign business is conducted fairly. These trade talks also had a tremendous impact on how California producers of goods and services compete in overseas markets, as well as domestically, and would have helped create jobs and economic growth through expanded international trade and investment.
For U.S. businesses, the successful implementation of these negotiations would have translated into:
- Major cuts in foreign tariffs on U.S. farm exports;
- Expanded market access for all U.S farm products through tariff cuts and quota expansion;
- Expanded market access for U.S. manufactured goods;
- Opening of foreign markets for the United States, such as telecommunications, entertainment, construction and engineering, etc;
- A reduction in the cost of exporting to some countries by 5 percent to 15 percent;
- An improvement in foreign customs procedures that currently cause shipment delays.
Trade Negotiations Committee Hearing
Negotiations resumed on Monday, July 21, 2008 — having been suspended in July 2006 — and ran late into the night and through the weekend. But in a sequence of meetings following the “concentric circles” structure, Lamy told participants that there was no escaping the fact that ministers had been unable to bridge their differences. Lamy told the media after speaking to members that out of a to-do list of 20 topics, 18 had seen positions converge, but the gaps could not narrow on the 19th — the special safeguard mechanism for developing countries.
Tuesday’s meetings included a group of seven ministers, followed by the Green Room session of about 30 representative delegations (with 20 ministers still present) and finally the informal meeting of the full membership.
The Green Room refers to a process, rather than a specific location, in which heads of delegation seek consensus informally under the chairmanship of the Director-General. Starting from July 21, roughly 40 Ministers met in a Ministerial Green Room in a bid to help find consensus on agriculture and industrial goods trade, while discussing the best way forward in future negotiations on services, rules and intellectual property. Ministers, ambassadors or senior officials who meet in the Green Room include the coordinators of all major groups in the WTO. This representation ensures that all positions, countries and regions are represented in the negotiations.
Anticipated Action
Still on the table are the draft agriculture and non-agricultural “modalities” texts (containing formulas for cutting tariffs and agricultural subsidies, flexibilities for making different cuts, and related rules and disciplines), Lamy reported. Ministers’ positions had converged on many issues, he said.
Lamy said he was personally disappointed. “I had hoped to come to you today with good news,” he told journalists. “The good news would have been that after a whole week of extenuating negotiations, after hours and hours of senior officials and ministers meetings, we had converged on a final package comprising the issues that all of us care about.”
CalChamber Policy
The CalChamber, in keeping with long-standing policy, enthusiastically supports free trade worldwide, expansion of international trade and investment, fair and equitable market access for California products abroad and elimination of disincentives that impede the international competitiveness of California business.
Staff Contact: Susanne Stirling