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Small countries suffer as the United States and other world trade
giants fight, Philippine officials said on Wednesday after global
trade talks collapsed in Geneva.
“It’s a fight among what the United States
wants, what China wants, what the US wants of other big
countries—and it is difficult for a Third-[World] country like us
[to have our voice heard],” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita
told reporters.
Ermita said President Gloria Arroyo was awaiting
the formal report of the Philippines’ negotiating team at the
World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Switzerland.
Trade negotiators failed to reach a global trade
pact on Tuesday, with the United States and India sharply divided
over a proposed special safeguard mechanism for the agriculture
sector.
“The consequences, nevertheless, are expected
to be greater for developing countries that are most vulnerable in
the global economy,” Trade Secretary Peter Favila said in a
statement.
“While seemingly citing it as a singular
issue, the breakdown suggests more than a few remaining unresolved
issues of deep concern to some members,” he added.
Ministers had struggled for more than a week to
reach consensus on subsidy levels and import tariffs for a new deal
under the WTO’s Doha Round, which has repeatedly foundered since
its launch seven years ago.
A non-government group called the collapse of
the WTO talks “a welcome respite for poor countries.”
“The ambition that has been driving these
talks became too much and the aggressive push by the US and the
European Union for more trade liberalization at a time of global
food and fuel crises [became] too blatant for developing countries
to take,” Stop the New Round! Coalition said in a statement.
The group said the negotiations in Geneva also
bogged down “because developing countries gave more importance to
protecting and supporting their agriculture and industries rather
than being hijacked into a bad deal that would limit their
development options.”
It urged the Philippine government to reject
unfair trade deals whether in the form of multilateral packages such
as Doha or agreements under regional free trade.
The Doha Development Round is the current
trade-negotiation round of the WTO that began at Doha, Qatar in
November 2001. Its objective is to lower trade barriers around the
world, permitting free trade between countries of varying
prosperity.
As of 2008, talks have stalled over a divide on
major issues, such as agriculture, industrial tariffs and non-tariff
barriers, services and trade remedies.
The most significant differences are between
developed nations led by the European Union, the United States and
Japan and the major developing countries led and represented mainly
by India along with Brazil, China and South Africa. There is also
considerable contention against and between the European Union and
the United States over their maintenance of agricultural subsidies,
which are seen to operate effectively as trade barriers.
-- AFP
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