No deal at W.T.O. Cancun meeting
Over the weekend, the fifth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization came to an end in Cancun, Mexico. But the big news is that the delegates went home without any sort of agreement in hand. According to Belize’s head of delegation, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Eamon Courtenay, in this instance, no deal is better than a bad deal. In his remarks to the conference, Courtenay said he could not support a proposal that would mean “a legacy of societal chaos”. Today, Courtenay told News 5 that to the surprise of the first world, the developing countries bonded together and refused to budge. And with the banana fiasco still fresh in their minds, less developed nations made sure they were technically prepared.
Eamon Courtenay, Min. of Investment and Foreign Trade
“We are disappointed with the result of the conference in that we went there with every expectation that the conference would endorse a ministerial text that would have given instructions to negotiators in Geneva to ensure that the development agenda of developing countries was addressed. That did not happen, the ministerial text did not have in the things that we wanted, and therefore the developing countries refused to endorse the text. And I think this was where there was a great surprise on the developed world, that in fact the developing countries sort of drew a line in the sand and said, no, we will not support it, we will not break the alliance that we forged at this conference.”
“I think it’s important to remember that this conference is a stock taking conference. Two years ago in Doha, Qatar, the trade ministers launch what was called the Doha Development Agenda, which meant simply that the negotiations, which are to go on for four years, are to have a development dimension. In other words, our preferences, we are to negotiate the rules that protect the preferences. We are to negotiate rules that allow us to reduce our tariffs at a slower pace than developed countries. We are to negotiate in such a way that our exports get into the markets of the developed world easier than they do right now, and now broadly, special and differential treatment for small countries. That was what we agreed on. And therefore the developing world was very disappointed and surprised at the text, which was presented to the conference. And in fact, there were criticisms of it being arrogant, as being a betrayal, as being dishonest. And it is that type of reality that we had a common predicament that this was supposed to be the development round, this round was supposed to be for developing countries. And if during the round the developed world is not prepared to give us what they promise, then we have to draw a line as I said in the sand, and say we are sticking with our guns, we are not going to move on this, you must deliver on the Doha Development Agenda.”
The next W.T.O. ministerial meeting has been scheduled for 2004 in Hong Kong. By then, the developing countries hope that there will be some cracks in the first world negotiating wall.
