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Differences within developing world mar cooperation in WTO

PTI - New Delhi

There is an urgent need to remove contradictions within developing countries so that they frame an integrated approach to resist pressure from the developed world in negotiations under the WTO.

This is one of the conclusions of an international conclave on "Globalisation and Agriculture: Challenges for South Asia" organised here by Research and Information System for the Non-Aligned and other Developing Countries (RIS). There are conflicts among the developing countries themselves, due to which they are unable to project a joint front against the developed world in the WTO fora, the director general, RIS, Mr Nagesh Kumar said in the conference.

On one hand developing countries are fighting for fair trade and raising larger issues in the interest of the entire sector, on the other, small economies with focus on single commodity exports easily fall prey to a few concessions doled out by the developed countries, executive director, Institute of Policy Studies, Mr Saman Kelegama added.

The Colombo-based Mr Kelegama said if there is cooperation amongst the developing countries they can have large access to each other’s markets let alone the demand for their products in the developed world. He said the need of the hour is such a strategy in which one developing country does not stamp on the foot of another while dealing with the developed world. A common strategy needs to be framed in the run-up to the ministerial WTO negotiations in Mexico next year, he said adding developing countries must form a like-minded group.

To tackle the non-tariff barriers in the form of high sanitary standards imposed by the US and the EU, "our stand should be to seek technical or financial assistance to meet these standards. If this does not come our way, imposition of such standards must be deferred", Mr Kumar added. Meanwhile, there should be enhanced cooperation amongst the South Asian countries in research for meeting the sanitary and phytosanitary standards fixed under WTO, he said.

Experts in the conclave felt developed countries will insist on cross-negotiations to get concessions in investments and services in return for giving greater market access to exports from the developing countries. "However our strategy should be to frame a common stand amongst ourselves and then put forth the views sector by sector to be on a strong wicket in each of them," said Mr Ram Upendra Das, a research associate with RIS. A South Asia-China-Australia axis must emerge as the third force after the US and the EU, he added.