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The November 2001 declaration of the ministerial conference
in Doha, Qatar provides the mandate for negotiations on a range of subjects and
work including issues concerning the implementation of the agreements.
The 21 subjects were listed in the Doha Declaration. Most of them involve
negotiations and other works including actions under “implementation”, analysis
and monitoring.
In Doha First, ministers agreed to adopt around
50 decisions clarifying the obligations of developing Country member
Governments with respect to issues including agriculture, subsidies, textiles
and clothing, technical barriers to trade, trade-related investment measures
and rules of Origin. Agreement on these points required hard bargaining between
negotiators over the course of nearly three years.
Many other implementation issues of concern to developing
countries have not been settled. For these issues, Ministers agreed in Doha on
a future work programme for addressing these matters.
The ministers established a two-track approach. Those issues
for which there was an agreed negotiating mandate in the declaration would be
dealt with under the terms of that mandate.
HIGHLIGHTS ON DOHA ROUND
Agriculture
Negotiations on agriculture began in early 2000, under
Article 20 of the WTO Agriculture Agreement. By November 2001 and the
Doha Ministerial Conference, 121 Governments had submitted a number of
negotiating proposals.
The declaration reconfirms the long-term objectives already
agreed in the present WTO Agreement i, e to establish a fair and
market-oriented trading system through a programme of fundamental reform. The
programme encompasses strengthened rules, and specific commitments on
Government support and protection for agriculture. The purpose is to correct
and prevent restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets.
Without prejudging the outcome, member governments commit
themselves to comprehensive negotiations that aimed at as follows
1) Market access:
substantial reductions
2) Exports
subsidies: reductions of, with a view to phasing out, all forms of these
3) Domestic support:
substantial reductions for supports that distort trade
The declaration makes special and differential treatment for
developing countries throughout the negotiations. It declares that the outcome
should be effective in practice and should enable the developing countries for
meeting their needs, in particular in food security and rural development.
The ministers also take note of the non-trade concerns (such
as environmental protection, food security, rural development, etc) reflected
in the negotiating proposals already submitted. They had confirmed that the
negotiations would take these into account, as provided in the Agricultural
Agreement.
SERVICES
The WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
commits member governments to undertake negotiations on specific issues and to
enter into successive rounds of negotiations to progressively liberalize trade
in services.
The services negotiations started officially in early 2000
under the Council for Trade in Services. In March 2001, the Services Council
fulfilled a key element in the negotiating mandate by establishing the
negotiating guidelines and procedures.
The Doha Declaration reaffirms the negotiating guidelines
and procedures, and establishes some key elements of the timetable including,
most importantly, the deadline for concluding the negotiations as part of a
single undertaking.
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Market Access for non-Agricultural Products
The ministers came to an agreement to launch tariff-cutting
negotiations on all non-agricultural products. The aim is “to reduce, or as
appropriate eliminate tariffs, including the reduction or elimination of tariff
peaks, high tariffs, and tariff escalation, as well as non-tariff barriers, in
particular on products of export interest to developing countries”. These
negotiations shall take into account the special needs and interests of
developing and least-developed countries, and recognize that these countries do
not need to match or reciprocate in full tariff-reduction commitments by other
participants.
Another example is “tariff escalation”, in which higher
import duties were applied on semi-processed products than on raw materials and
higher still on finished products. These practices protect domestic processing
industries and discourage the development of processing activities in the
countries where raw materials originate.
Trade related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
TRIPS and Public Health
In the declaration, ministers have stressed that it is
important to implement and interpret the TRIPS Agreement in a way that supports
public health — by promoting both access to existing medicines and the creation
of new medicines. They refer to their separate declaration on this subject.
This special declaration on TRIPS and public health is
designed to respond concerns about the possible implications of the TRIPS
Agreement for access to medicines.
It emphasizes that the TRIPS Agreement does not and should
not prevent member governments from acting to protect public health. It affirms
governments’ right to use the agreement’s flexibilities in order to avoid any
reticence the governments may feel.
The separate declaration clarifies some of the forms of
flexibility available, in particular compulsory licensing and parallel
importing. (For an explanation of these issues, go to the main TRIPS pages on
the WTO website)
Transparency In Government Procurement
The Doha Declaration says that the “negotiations shall be
limited to the transparency aspects and therefore that will not restrict the
scope for countries to give preferences to domestic supplies and suppliers” —
it is separate from the plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement.
The declaration had stressed development concerns, technical
assistance and capacity building.
Since the 1 August 2004 decision, this subject has been
dropped from the Doha agenda.
WTO Rules: Anti Dumping and Subsidies: -
The ministers agreed on negotiations concerning the
Anti-Dumping (GATT Article 6) and Subsidies agreements. The aim is to clarify
and improve disciplines while preserving the basic, concepts, principles of
these agreements, and taking into account the needs of developing and
least-developed participants.
In overlapping negotiating phases, participants first
indicated which provisions of these two agreements they think should be the
subject of clarification and improvement in the next phase of negotiations. The
ministers mention specifically fisheries subsidies as one sector important to
developing countries and where participants should aim to clarify and improve
WTO disciplines.
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