The WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancún: what progress has been made in the Doha Development Agenda

The failure to launch the so-called Millennium Round at Seattle marked a crucial moment in the history of the World Trade Organisation (WTo) and also for multilateral diplomacy. From then on, everyone clearly realised that, given the strong opposition to an indiscriminate extension of trade liberalisation, the days of the big powers (USA and Eu) imposing their agenda on the others had come to an end. This opposition was basically due to an awareness that the benefits of globalisation are not equally shared. Since there were no corrective mechanisms and ad hoc measures for developing countries, they stand to gain very little from globalisation,
and this is to the detriment of their development processes and planetary balances. At Seattle it emerged that the scepticism about unlimited globalisation was also shared by significant sections of the populations in the north of the world.

The Doha Development Agenda, drafted in late 2001, approached the new round of trade talks in a very different way, stressing aspects encouraging greater participation in trade and, therefore, greater growth for countries in the south.
The Ministerial Meeting in Cancún (10-14 September) had been convened to assess progress at the mid-term of the talks begun in Doha and due to end in December 2004.

But what progress has been made in the talks? Let’s consider the main aspects that will be the focus of debates in Mexico.
Firstly, a very important agreement on marketing life-saving drugs has just been reached and will be ratified in Cancún. This agreement is required for the struggle against very widespread diseases in developing countries (AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria).
Reaching agreement was very difficult, but the topic had become so central to the agenda that it would have been impossible to have avoided a total failure at Cancún without a positive outcome on this issue ahead of the conference. Thanks to this agreement, patent rights on essential drugs for treating these diseases, mostly in the hands of American and European pharmaceutical compаnies, have been suspended in countries with a high incidence of the said diseases. Local companies will be able to manufacture at cost price for their national markets and even export low-cost drugs to countries with no production capability. The packaging of these drugs must be very different from the original and the products can’t be marketed in developed countries, where royalties will continue to apply.
In short, this is a good agreement giving access to essential medicines for millions of people for whom the cost was prohibitive. It is also a good example of how a multilateral forum such as the WTo, if used properly, can produce positive results for humanity.

This is the heart of the Doha Agenda!
We also note that proposal, sponsored by Brazil and South African, was accepted by the European Union from the outset and opposed by the American pharmaceutical industry to the bitter end, until they finally had to give in.
But let’s briefly look at the other issues on the agenda:

• 1) Agriculture: a key theme. Farm trade is still much less liberalised than industrial and services trade. The Eu has proposed opening up markets compatible with the recent Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
  These are substantial proposals but considered not to be enough by the exporting countries (Cairns Group) and the United States (who are also protectionist but with a different model from Europe). What was discussed was the whole system of subsidies for farmers, especially export subsidies, which should disappear at the end of the talks. But the European Union is still reluctant to make precise commitments. The debate in Cancún will be very lively, especially for this reason.

• 2) Industrial goods: talks will focus on further reductions in industrial tariffs and the proposal to completely liberalise trade in seven key sectors for developing countries (textiles, electronics, jewellery, leather and derivatives, etc.).

• 3) Services: they will not be a key issue in Cancún. But there will be a report on the various proposals by member states. The Eu has already suggested opening up in some sectors (especially high technology) to professionals from the rest of the world, but not, as some had expected, the sectors of health and education.

• 4) Geographical indications: backed by others, the Eu has requested the extension of ‘protected designation of origin’ to other products in addition to wine and spirits, the only sector where it currently exists. Opposing this move are farm exporters – including the United States – who produce food with misappropriated names. There is little hope of agreement on this issue at Cancún.

• 5) New themes: the so-called Singapore issues. They consist of four sectors currently not covered by WTO regulations but strongly related to trade (investments, competition policy, trade facilitation, and transparency in government procurement). The developed countries would like to table talks aimed at defining a framework of minimal multilateral rules. Some developing countries fear the extension of the WTO powers and a further reduction to their room for manoeuvre. The outcome to the Cancún discussions is difficult to predict and will probably be conditioned by progress in other parts of the agenda (especially agriculture).

• 6) Special and differentiated treatment: this means defining a set of specific rules in favour of developing countries to help them integrate further into international trade circles and play a more active part in the WTO and its arbitration system.