DTI - Developing Countries & the WTO

In the run up to the WTO Ministerial in Seattle, a number of developing countries tabled proposals to tackle what they saw as the imbalances in the outcome of the Uruguay Round. Although many of the proposals tabled involve changes to existing Agreements, which would necessarily require re-negotiation, they were tabled under the heading of implementing the outcome of the Uruguay Round and have therefore been referred to ever since as the "implementation" proposals.

Post-Seattle, more issues were added until well over a hundred separate proposals were under discussion. Although a few proposals were agreed in the summer of 2001, it was only at the WTO Ministerial in Doha where substantial progress was made. Nearly fifty proposals were addressed in the Doha Ministerial Decision on Implementation-Related Issues and Concerns, either agreed outright or subject to some specific further work. The Doha Declaration (paragraph 12) remitted the other fifty or so proposals to WTO committees for further work.

Special and Differential Treatment is the term used for the way in which developing countries are treated differently to developed countries within the WTO system.

Examples of Special and Differential Treatment include giving developing countries longer time periods than developed countries in which to implement WTO Agreements, providing technical assistance to developing countries to implement specific WTO Agreements and providing preferential market access (through such schemes as the Generalised System of Preferences or the Everything But Arms initiative) which is non-reciprocal and available to many developing countries but not to developed countries.

The Doha Ministerial (in paragraph 44 of the Ministerial Declaration, cross-referenced to paragraph 12(i.-iii.) of the Ministerial Decision on Implementation-Related Issues and Concerns) mandated further work on Special and Differential Treatment, specifically a review of existing provisions with a view to strengthening them and making them more precise, effective and operational.

The Doha Ministerial stressed the importance of technical assistance and capacity building for developing countries in order to ensure that developing countries can participate fully in the WTO and take full advantage of the opportunities offered to them by their membership of the WTO.

Post-Doha, the WTO Secretariat prepared and WTO Members have agreed a Technical Assistance Plan for 2002, which is intended to begin addressing developing countries' concerns. The Plan includes such activities as visits by members of the WTO Secretariat and regional seminars on WTO issues. Much of the work being carried out under the Technical Assistance Plan is funded by contributions made at a Pledging Conference on 11 March 2002 to the Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund (DDA GTF). The UK pledged £1m to the DDA GTF at this conference.

More broadly, the UK has committed £45m to trade-related technical assistance and capacity building activities.

In the run up to Doha, the issue of access to medicines emerged as a trade issue, given concerns in some quarters that the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement) was raising the prices of medicines available to developing countries.

At Doha, agreement was reached on a Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, in which WTO Ministers agreed that the TRIPS Agreement neither does nor should prevent WTO Members from taking measures to protect public health and affirmed that the TRIPS Agreement can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO Members' right to protect public health and to promote access to medicines for all. Moreover, the Declaration reaffirmed the right of WTO Members to use, to the full, the flexibilities within the TRIPS Agreement for this purpose.

Beyond this, WTO Ministers also instructed the TRIPS Council to find a solution to the problems faced by WTO Members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector in making effective use of compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement.

Following publication of the White Paper of December 2000 entitled "Eliminating World Poverty - Making Globalisation Work for the Poor", the Government set up a Commission to investigate the issues relating to intellectual property rights and development more generally. The Commission reported in September 2002 and the Government response was published in May 2003. Both the Commission's report, entitled Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy and the Government's response to that report can be accessed on the DFID website.

At the Doha Ministerial it was agreed that the WTO would set up a working group to examine the relationship between Trade, Debt and Finance and to report findings to the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference.

Issues relating to Trade, Debt and Finance cover several policy areas and fall under the mandate of different institutions. The key role of the WTO in this is to ensure coherence and promote information exchange.

The U.K. is supportive of this initiative but is keen to ensure that the group concentrate on coherence across international body agreements.

At the Doha Ministerial it was agreed that the WTO would set up a working group to examine the relationship between Trade and Transfer of Technology and to report findings to the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference.

Technology transfer has been an issue in some parts of the WTO (such as TRIPS), and before that in the GATT and in a great many other international negotiations (especially environmental negotiations) for many years. The key issue is essentially the difference of approach to technology transfer taken by developed and developing countries. Some see technology transfer as taking place implicitly through routine trade relations, and especially through foreign direct investment (FDI) - countries should therefore create the conditions in which FDI can take place (stable regulatory environment, intellectual property protection etc) and technology will follow trade. Others would prefer a more explicit approach with companies being pushed into transferring technology (rather than pulled to a suitable location for FDI) on concessional terms. How we bridge this gap is the key to a positive outcome.

At the Doha Ministerial it was agreed to establish a work programme to examine issues relating to the trade of small economies with the intention of promoting fuller integration of small, vulnerable economies into the multilateral trading system.

The work programme on small economies will be a standing item on the General Council agenda and recommendations for action are to be made to the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference.

The Doha Ministerial instructed the sub committee for Least Developed Countries to report on an agreed work programme. This was presented to the General Council in February 2002 and commits the Committee to focus on:

Market access;
Trade related technical assistance and capacity building;
Providing support to agencies assisting with diversification;
Mainstreaming trade;
Participation of LDCs in the multilateral trading system:
Accession of LDCs to the WTO; and
Follow up to Ministerial decisions/declarations.

The UK is also party to a number of other non WTO initiatives aimed at promoting better integration of developing countries into the world trading system.

Contact:

Response Centre
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email:dti.enquiries@dti.gsi.gov.uk