Trade and development at the WTO: issues for Cancún. Seventh Report of Session 2002–03

This paper presents the UK Parliament’s recommendations for Cancun and for a genuine development round.<B>Development-friendly agreements on specific issues:Agriculture:</B> There must be substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support, export subsidies and tariffs, so that developing countries can trade their way out of poverty. As a minimum, any agreement must end dumping. In the interim, developing countries must be permitted to protect themselves from dumping. The Harbinson draft fails on both counts. The recently agreed reform of the CAP is a welcome but only small step in the right direction by the EU<B>Non-agricultural market access:</B> The Government must push the case for offering real market access to developing countries, delivered and guaranteed on a multilateral basis, with tariff peaks reduced, tariff escalation tackled, and preference erosion addressed. These goals are relevant to agriculture tooSingapore Issues: The Government should unequivocally drop its support for opening negotiations on the Singapore Issues. These issues would overload an already full agenda. They are not wanted by most developing countries. And it is questionable whether the WTO is the right forum for agreements on investment and competition<B>TRIPS and Public Health:</B> The US Government must stand up to the pharmaceutical lobby and take its developmental responsibilities seriously<B>GATS:</B> The UK must do more to ensure that GATS will be a development-friendly agreement in practice, and to guarantee that the right to regulate will include the right to regulate for pro-poor development and poverty reduction<B>Effective participation by developing countries:</B> The Government should continue supporting assessments, providing technical assistance, and building the capacities of developing countries. We are pleased to hear that the Government “will not accept any proposal that it believes will damage the prospects of developing countries”. But effective participation requires that the views of developing countries are listened to.<B>Development-friendly rules:</B> The Government should work to deliver a framework agreement on Special and Differential Treatment which will put developing countries’ needs for flexibility and policy space at the heart of a development-friendly WTO. If political commitment and leadership are forthcoming a genuine development round can still be secured.