Global Policy Forum

By Gustavo Capdevila

Feeling the pressure of the uncertainty hanging over the international economy, the World Trade Organization (WTO) will work in closer cooperation with the United Nations to tackle the challenge of the new round of multilateral trade talks. Another factor that has influenced the WTO's shift towards closer collaboration with the broader United Nations system is the presence of its new director-general, Supachai Panitchpakdi, who assumed the post five weeks ago.

Supachai said that in the complex process of the new round of talks, he did not see any chance that the WTO on its own could possibly aspire to achieving the goals set by its member nations, such as the generation of improved opportunities for the involvement of developing countries in the global market. "We can only work with our friends in various international institutions that have similar goals, similar aspirations, and also the resources to complement our efforts," he underlined.

The former deputy prime minister and commerce minister of Thailand is the first person from the developing South to head the organization responsible for overseeing the multilateral system of trade. Since its creation in 1995, the WTO has been headed by representatives of industrialized nations. Renato Ruggiero, from Italy, held the post of director-general until 1999, and his successor, Mike Moore, from New Zealand, ended his stint on August 31.

Under its first two chiefs, the WTO maintained merely formal relations with United Nations agencies. And in remarks made in an unofficial capacity, WTO functionaries made no attempt to conceal their pleasure with that independence and self-sufficiency. But on the very first day of his mandate, Supachai announced that the WTO would work more closely with agencies like the UN Development Program (UNDP), the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and especially the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

With respect to reaching a "real understanding" of the issues of interest to developing nations in various trade-related areas, Supachai said that it was UNCTAD that could fill the gap that the WTO would not be able to fill in the short term. At a meeting this week of the Trade and Development Board, which governs UNCTAD while the conference is in recess, Supachai alluded to the difficulties that have arisen in the "difficult adjustment period" that the world is currently experiencing. The WTO director-general noted that despite the overall sense of economic uncertainty, the multilateral trade system must make real progress in the talks launched at the organization's fourth ministerial conference, held in November 2001 in Doha, Qatar.

For his part, UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero pointed out that in a world that is facing "so many risks, so many uncertainties, not only in economic terms, but in security terms," development issues run the risk of once more being pushed to the backburner. He called for a strengthening of the multilateral approach to coming up with constructive solutions to today's global problems.

Given the current circumstances, the "field of trade" had luckily been one of the few areas where multilateral approaches had continued to predominate, he added. But in order to uphold the value of the multilateral trading system, "it is imperative that these trade negotiations conclude successfully, and on time, without any unnecessary delays," Ricupero underlined.

The new Doha Round of talks is aimed at the opening of markets in areas such as agriculture, manufactured products, services, and trade-related intellectual property rights. The deadlines for the negotiations, which also focus on trade and the environment, investment, competition, the conditions of the least developed countries and small economies, is January 1, 2005.

But Supachai acknowledged this week in the UNCTAD board meeting that some negotiations had already fallen behind schedule, such as the talks on special and differentiated treatment, a mechanism that recognizes the varying levels of development of WTO members when it comes to the liberalization of trade.

The WTO's fifth ministerial conference is slated for September 2003 in the Mexican resort city of Cancun. Supachai said that he saw the meeting as a sort of "mid-term review" of the Doha round. But "the substantive part of the negotiations" should be worked out before Cancun, he warned. "If we leave too many things to Cancun, I don't think we would be seeing the end of the round in time."

Supachai advised the WTO's 144 member states to avoid using delaying tactics to improve their bargaining positions, because the talks are governed by the idea of the "single undertaking", which means no agreement will be reached until every issue has been agreed, with no exceptions. Ricupero offered the WTO total support from UNCTAD experts in the endeavor to provide developing countries with whatever assistance they needed in the talks.

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