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LDC’s unity brings WTO benefits
KATHMANDU, DEC 01 - Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission Dr Shankar Sharma has said that both the developing and least developed countries (LDCs) should maintain their unified stance in order to reap the maximum benefits offered by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
"Lessons were learnt from Seattle and Cancun that only unity can help protect the larger interests of the South that includes developing and LDCs," Dr Sharma said. The ministerial meets of Seattle in 1999 and Cancun in 2003 had ran down after the South vehemently opposed the North’s hegemony on global trade issues.
Dr Sharma’s assertions come at a time when the developed countries, especially the United States and the European Union, are trying their best to enter into regional and bilateral deals with developing countries and LDCs with the intention of breaking the strong coalition of the lesser developed world.
The Vice-Chairman, at the same time, stressed that weaker economies need to diversify trade and enhance competitiveness in order to survive under the WTO regime. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the conference cum training entitled ‘Post Cancun Agenda for South Asia’ that will be held until 2 December.
On the occasion, Dinesh Chandra Pyakurel, Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, said that the conference is timely as it is now necessary for South Asia to take stock of what transpired during the Cancun Ministerial and plan their future strategy.
Dr Posh Raj Pandey, President of SAWTEE said that there has been numerous failures at the multilateral level, but those failures did not inflict any serious damage to the global trading regime. "The Cancun failure has in fact given all the opportunities to introspect where and what went wrong."
Dr Pandey added that it is in the best interest of South Asia to have a rule-based multilateral trading system than to have untamed trading regime under which developed countries get free hand to develop their own unilateral legislation and practices. Highlighting the weakness of South Asia, he said, "Despite the existence of SAARC, South Asian countries could not act together in WTO Ministerial Meet, though some countries worked together in other groups. It is now imperative that South Asia take a common position for future negotiations."
Stating that Cancun failure exhibits the complexity of North-South negotiations, Dev Raj Dahal; head of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Nepal, said that achieving a more peaceful and more equitable world-order requires a global community based on negotiated consensus. That is important to create a level-playing field and to avoid distortions in trade.
"Non-implementation of WTO agreements by the rich nations, pressure on weaker countries to open their lucrative services markets while protecting their own farm sectors, and rich countries’ relentless pursuit for obtaining new concessions on investment have increased weaker nations’ vulnerability to global economic uncertainties," he said.
South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), Kathmandu, and Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), Jaipur are jointly organising the three-day event in association with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Nepal, and Novib, Oxfam Netherlands.Posted on: 2003-11-30 11:20
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