Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, who was picked as the new WTO
director-general to replace Frenchman Pascal Lamy from September 1,
2013. Photo/FILE
AFP
JAKARTA, Sunday
The
WTO meets for a crunch summit in Indonesia this week billed as a
do-or-die attempt to salvage an elusive deal on global commerce and,
with it, the 159-member trade body’s own relevance.
New
WTO chief Roberto Azevedo will be seeking to defy the odds and push
through an agreement that could lead to re-launching the “Doha Round” of
talks on slashing world trade barriers.
But hopes for
success are low after the WTO failed to agree on even a modest deal to
put to trade ministers who will open the four-day gathering on the
island of Bali on Tuesday.
At stake is the future of
trade multilateralism as regional pacts are increasingly favoured by
major trading nations, such as the Asia-Pacific-focused Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) pushed aggressively by Washington, analysts said.
High cost to its credibility and relevance
Sergio
Marchi, Canada’s past trade minister and former WTO envoy, said
“failure in Bali will be very unkind to the WTO after 12 years of missed
deadlines and opportunities” on the Doha Round.
“There will be a high cost to its credibility and relevance,” he said.
The
Doha Round, launched in Qatar in 2001, aims for a wide-ranging accord
to open markets and remove trade barriers, with a focus on helping
poorer countries.
Azevedo, Brazil’s former trade envoy
who took the WTO helm in September, has cited some estimates saying it
could provide a $1 trillion boost to global commerce.
But
the talks have stalled repeatedly as rich countries, emerging powers
such as China and India, and the world’s poorest nations spar over the
give and take needed to craft a deal.
The
organisation’s requirement that deals be unanimously agreed by all
members also has complicated matters. Negotiators had long ruled out
major progress in Bali, instead working on lower-level thematic accords
that could be fed into a wider package later.
But
despite an intense push by Azevedo (below) and signs that diplomats were
coming tantalisingly close on those accords, talks in Geneva stumbled
last week over food security and customs procedures.
WTO
diplomats engaged in last-ditch talks on Thursday however hailed a
“breakthrough” on simplifying customs measures to facilitate trade,
indicating that poor countries would be given extra flexibility to
implement new rules under discussion. (AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment