DOHA: A top World Trade Organisation executive yesterday made it clear that the 2013 Bali WTO summit will not be focusing on all the five recommendations laid out by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to resolve the much-delayed “Doha Round” deadlock.
Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiz, Deputy Director General, WTO, Geneva, said the Bali Summit will be focusing only on three potential deliverables, out of the five-point recommendations of the ICC. According to her, the three ‘deliverables’ are the trade facilitation agreement, implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access for exports from least-development countries and phase out of agricultural subsidies.
Trade facilitation covers series of measures whereby countries reduce red tape and simplify customs and other procedures for handling goods at borders. An agreement on trade facilitation should significantly reduce costs, speed up and streamline administrative and other official procedures, and create a more transparent, predictable and efficient environment for cross-border trade. The ICC recommends that the WTO agreement on trade facilitation should be concluded by the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali in December 2013.
On the duty-free and quota-free market access, the ICC recommended that the developed WTO members that have not already agreed to provide duty-free and quota-free commitments should fulfill their commitments unilaterally as of now. It recommended that the large developing counties should also consider extending the DFQF commitments to LDCs (least-developed countries)
On the phase out of agricultural export subsidies, the ICC recommendation notes that members have already reached a conditional agreement during the 6th WTO Ministerial in 2005 to phase out the export subsidies and disciplines on all export measures by the end of 2013. The members must now agree to phase out agricultural export subsidies by the 2013 Bali Summit.
“Renunciation of food export restrictions”, ‘Expansion of trade in IT products and encourage the growth of e-commerce” are among other two recommendations made by the ICC to unlock the “Doha Round”. Valentine called up on the 1,000-odd business leaders attending the Doha summit to chip in critical inputs to make the Bali summit successful and chart ‘Bali and beyond’. “You are the ultimate beneficiaries of trade rules and you have the legitimate voice,” she said.
The Peninsula
