The WTO Director General, Pascal Lamy in an interactive session hosted by the apex Indian industry body - FICCI - in Delhi on Thursday before the start of the informal Ministerial Meeting said : “We are seeing the emergence of new world leaders. Not that they are new. Many of them have a millenary history. But there is a realization today that global solutions will require giving these new leaders not only a voice but also a say at the table.”

Lamy mentioned a host of crisis engulfing the world today like the global financial crisis, Swine Flu pandemic, floods, droughts and food scarcity in various parts of the globe, rising unemployment and climate change. He described the situation as “which threatens to undo the economic development achieved by many countries and to erode people's faith in an open international trading system.”

Rather than being a cause of the crisis, trade has been another casualty, given the simultaneous reduction in aggregate demand across all major world economies, he said. The WTO economists estimate that the decline in global trade, this year would be nearly 10% in volume terms, its worst result since the end of the Second World War.

Raising hopes, Lamy, however said ; “While I do not think we are in a situation where we need to cry wolf we need to remain vigilant and ensure that WTO members remain open with one another.”

Banking hopes on the G-20 group of developing countries to break the ice in the stalled negotiations, he said “the G-20, as imperfect as it may be, is certainly a much more legitimate forum than the G-8. And it may be that the discussions take longer and that the views are more divergent, but this is a better reflection of today's geopolitical realities.”

Further describing the new emerging global leadership, Lamy foresaw “a triangle of coherence” with G-20 on one side providing global political leadership and policy direction, the member-driven international organizations on the another side providing expertise and specialized inputs for rules, policies and programmes and on the third side is G-192 and the United Nations providing universal forum for accountability.

“The G-20 is not a decision-making forum. But it is clear that decision-making in the respective international organizations will be faster if there is political impulse emerging from the G-20…..In the longer term, we should have both the G-20 and the international agencies reporting to the Parliament of the United Nations. This would constitute a potent mix of leadership, inclusiveness and action to ensure coherent and effective global governance.”

Lamy said that he was neither “optimistic” nor “pessimistic” to the situation but always remain “activistic”

He hoped that improving global financial governance would be put to test at the upcoming G20 Leaders' Summit in Pitisburg at the end of this month. Later in the year the FAO will host a World Summit to agree on key actions to tackle food security.

Lamy, however, defended new non-tariff measures and more anti-dumping actions imposed by some countries in the wake of global financial crisis as WTO-consistent. “True, most of these measures are allowed under WTO rules. True, also that none of them has triggered so far a tit-for-tat chain retaliation. But there is no denying the fact that they have had some trade chilling effect,” he said.

However, the Indian minister for commerce and industry, Anand Sharma in his welcome address at the informal WTO Ministerial Meeting described rising protectionist pressures and continued delay in concluding the Doha Round as one of the main threats to revival of trade flows. He justified India hosting the informal Ministerial Meeting as flowing from the commitments made by world leaders at the conclusion of talks in Washington, London, Bali, Paris, L'Aquila, Geneva and Singapore.

“But that was not all. We also realize that individually, the international groupings of nations from which declarations of support for the Doha Round have emanated, simply did not represent the full spectrum of the WTO membership. The Delhi meeting constitutes a microcosom of the entire WTO membership representing all shades of opinion and interests. This would be the first occasion since July 2008 that such a meeting is taking place to give a determined push to the multilateral process. Together, we need to work in this spirit and go beyond yet another reaffirmation and work together collectively to provide guidance for a clear road map of multilateral engagement in the months ahead, remaining conscious of the 2010 timeline,” he said.

Countries which are participating are Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, some countries of the European Union, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, United States, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Apart from the WTO DG, Pascal Lamy, the chairs of the negotiating committees on agriculture, NAMA and services are participating. Group statement of G-20 would be presented by Brazil, that of Cairns group by Australia, that of NAMA-11 by South Africa, that of Cotton-4 by Burkina Faso, that of African group by Egypt, that of ACP group by Mauritius, that of G-33 by Indonesia, that of SVEs by Barbados, that of LDCs by Tanzania, that of CARICOM by Trinidad & Tobago, That of G-10 by Switzerland. The EU, US, Japan, New Zealand and China would make their separate presentations.

The Indian commerce minister, however said that this was neither the appropriate forum nor the opportune time to discuss specific issues individual areas of negotiations. This would be left to the multilateral process in Geneva. The present discussions in Delhi would mainly focus on the best way to spark the multilateral negotiations to move the Doha Round to a quick closure.

“Negotiations would be able to focus fully on technical issues only if we work together to remove the obstacles coming in the way of multilateral discussions and provide clear directions on how the multilateral process at the WTO can be re-energised,” he said.

A day before the informal Ministerial Meeting in Delhi, senior level official met to trash out some pertinent issues. A discussion paper circulated by India about ten days before the meeting on some of these process-related issues formed the basis of discussion. On the basis of this paper, participants discussed the issue of timelines for completing modalities in Agriculture and NAMA and for revised offers in Services; the sequence in which all areas being negotiated under the Doha Round are to be completed; the need to ensure commensurate progress in other areas, such as Rules, TRIPS, Trade and Environment and the evolution of a balanced outcome within an agreed timeframe; the modalities for intensification of work in negotiating groups and for official level meetings of WTO members in order to meet the 2010 timeline set by the global leadership. It is noteworthy that the Doha Round is under negotiation since 2001 and the negotiation paused in July 2008 on some differences between developed and developing countries.

In light of the importance and integrity of the multilateral process as a tried and tested process, participants also discussed the issue of the extent to which other forms of engagement - such as bilateral or plurilateral discussion - could serve to hasten the negotiating process without compromising on its inclusiveness and also how the multilateral process could subsume the understanding developed through bilateral processes.

The development mandate, which is the bedrock of the Doha Round was emphasised and it was stated that focus had to be maintained on development concerns in developing economies. In addition the special concerns relating to LDCs were also discussed.

The Indian commerce minister, however said : “If we look at the texts of modalities on NAMA and agriculture alone, it would be apparent that there are still a few gaps and large number of unresolved issues. In some instances, the architecture of a solution is not yet fully in sight”

He urged the member countries to suggest as to how without deviating from the Hong Kong mandate, the negotiations can move forward. Parallel negotiations in services and other areas can be taken up in a more proactive manner.#