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Negotiators try to regroup after WTO talks fail

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy grimaces during a press conference after trade talks collapsed in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP

World trading powers appealed yesterday for efforts to salvage WTO proposals amid regret and emotion at the collapse of nine-day marathon talks, and warnings that the poorest countries will suffer.

“I would only urge the director-general [of the WTO] to treat this as a pause, not a breakdown, to keep on the table what is there,” Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said the morning after the dramatic collapse.

The US and India shared dismay and regret even as they stuck by the unreconciled positions on import tariffs which sank the talks on Tuesday, while African countries were just plain angry.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the breakdown was “distressing,” while Nath turned up to talk to reporters “with a very heavy heart.”

“Susan Schwab said she loved me and I said I loved her too,” Nath said. “But probably she didn’t love me enough. I told her that.”

Talks collapsed after nine grueling days of negotiations due to disagreement between India and the US over the so-called special safeguard mechanism (SSM). The measure is designed to protect poor farmers, allowing countries to impose a special tariff on certain agricultural goods in the event of an import surge or price fall.

But African countries which had hoped to tackle other issues, such as poor countries’ cotton and banana exports, were inconsolable.

“We can hardly control our anger,” said Burkina Faso Trade Minister Mamadou Sanou.

“We are most disappointed that the rich countries, champions of liberalization who urge us to liberalize our markets, those very countries are afraid to trade with us on an equal footing,” he said.

Kenyan Trade Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, speaking on behalf of an African grouping, said the collapse “gravely undermines” the fight against poverty.

“Africa’s opportunity to achieve fair trade has ... been gravely undermined by the lack of progress in these negotiations,” he said.

Ministers had struggled for nine days to reach consensus on subsidy levels and import tariffs for a new deal under the WTO’s Doha Round, which has foundered repeatedly since it was launched in 2001.

Delegates held meetings yesterday to discuss the way forward. Some called for the progress made so far to be preserved, while others have insisted time was needed before a next step could be made.

“We will need to let the dust settle a bit,” WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said on Tuesday. “WTO members will need to have a sober look at if and how they bring the pieces back together.”

Beijing, meanwhile, blamed “selfish” wealthy Western nations for the failure while Japan upbraided China and India, as growing economic powers, for not shouldering greater responsibilities in the WTO.

Xinhua news agency said the negotiations in Geneva collapsed ultimately because the US and the EU were unwilling to scrap huge subsidies they pay their farmers.

Xinhua said the root cause was that rich countries cared too much about their own interests and too little about those of developing nations.

But Japanese said China was less sinned-against than sinning.

“Frankly, I’d have to wonder whether China and India weighed their words and actions commensurate with their responsibility and how much they considered the overall global economy as they focused too much on their own interests,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference in Tokyo.

Both India and China now wield more economic influence than they did in 2001, he said.

“In other words, their responsibilities have also grown bigger, too,” he said. “I hope China and India will address international negotiations like the WTO talks with a sense of how big a role they play in the world economy.”
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