This snapshot taken on 02/08/2004, shows web content selected for preservation by The National Archives. External links, forms and search boxes may not work in archived websites.
Press ReleaseFrom the Department for International Development21 July 2004 CRUNCH TIME FOR DOHA ROUND OF TRADE TALKS Next week’s trade talks in Geneva will be a critical moment for the world trading system – and it’s the poorest countries that have most to lose if there is no agreement, said UK Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn today (Wednesday 21 July). Speaking at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, in London, Mr Benn said there was a danger of developing countries losing faith in a rules-based multilateral trading system if the meeting of the World Trading Organisation General Council fails to deliver them significant benefits. Mr Benn said: “All WTO members will need to show flexibility if we are to build the necessary consensus we hoped to have achieved in Cancun. But it is the richest WTO members that need to make the greatest movement in the negotiations”. “If talks collapse next week, the main losers will be those the current round was designed to assist – developing countries and their citizens. We risk undermining developing countries’ faith in the rules-based multilateral system if we don’t reach agreement. We risk withdrawing into bilateralism and weakening the rules-based multilateral system – from which all stand to gain: rich and poor. We risk undermining global security by not tackling inequities in our global order”. Mr Benn stressed that this is a critical moment for the multilateral trading system, and for making the system work for the world’s poor. “In Doha in 2001 the members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) committed to putting the needs of developing countries at the heart of their work programme. Now this commitment is being tested. Movement is needed now, before the US elections and the change in European Commission later this year limit the negotiating capacity of the two major negotiating powers,” he said. “The Doha Round must redress the imbalances which stemmed from the previous Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. It must be a true ‘Development Round’. Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently reported to the Commonwealth Secretariat on the 70:30 split in the balance of benefits from the Uruguay Round in favour of developed countries. We should not be surprised that developing countries are demanding a better outcome from the trade talks this time around, and neither should we deny them. ” Notes to Editors 1. Key objectives for the Doha round are to open rich country markets to developing country exports, to provide effective special treatment for different countries to meet their development needs, to tackle trade distorting domestic support in agricultural trade. UK Ministers are working closely together to ensure that the Doha round brings real benefits to the poor. 2. Oxfam estimates that an increase in Africa’s share of world exports of just 1% would be worth five times as much as the continent’s share of aid and debt relief. It is no coincidence that Africa, whose share of international trade fell from 5% to 2% between 1990 and 2000, now has the highest poverty levels in the world. 3. The experience of the West African cotton producers exemplifies the imbalances in the current trading system. In Benin the cotton industry accounts for 85% of total exports and 20% of national income. Benin and three other West African cotton producers are potentially very competitive cotton producers. But they liberalised into highly distorted markets. They are now paying the price, with their cotton industry in crisis and, with it, the livelihoods of hundreds of thousand producers. This is because they have to compete with heavily subsidised EU and US producers. In 2001, the US cotton farmers received nearly $4 billion in assistance - more than the entire GDP of Benin. Back to TopPress Enquiries: 020 7023 0600
Overseas (+44 20 7023 0600)
|