Doha Development Agenda
Introduction
● On November 9-14, 2001, trade ministers from member countries met in Doha, Qatar for
the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference. At that meeting, they agreed to undertake a new
round of multilateral trade negotiations. Doha Round.
● Acknowledging the fact that the majority of WTO members are developing countries,
they agreed to continue making positive efforts to ensure that developing countries, and
in particular LDCs, secure a share in the growth of world trade commensurate with their
development needs. Thus, in launching the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) talks they
placed developing countries’ needs and interests at the heart of the negotiations. The
fundamental objective is to improve the trading prospects of developing countries and
deal with problems that developing countries face in the implementation of the present
agreements.
● Its aim is to achieve major reform of the international trading system through the
introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules. The work programme covers
about 20 areas of trade. The fundamental objective is to improve the trading prospects of
developing countries.
● Doha Round negotiations have been stalled as the participating countries could not reach
a consensus over trade negotiations with major differences between developed and
developing countries. The reason of the failure of Doha Round:
1. The developed countries especially EU, the USA, Canada and Japan had differences with
developing countries (India, Brazil, China, South Africa) arguments over Special
Safeguard Mechanism (SSM)
2. The negotiations considered in the Doha Round were taken up in Geneva in 2008 but
were again stalled due to the lack of consensus on SSM.
Subjects covered in Doha Negotiations
Agriculture
The aim: More market access, eliminating export subsidies, reducing distorting domestic
support, sorting out a range of developing country issues, and dealing with non-trade concerns
such as food security and rural development.
Non-agricultural market access (NAMA)
The aim: “To reduce or as appropriate eliminate tariffs, including the reduction or elimination of
high tariffs, as well as non-tariff barriers, in particular on products of export interest to
developing countries”.
Services
The aim: To improve market access and to strengthen the rules. Each government has the right to
decide which sectors it wants to open to foreign companies and to what extent, including any
restrictions on foreign ownership.
Trade facilitation
The aim: To ease customs procedures and to facilitate the movement, release and clearance of
goods. This is an important addition to the overall negotiation since it would cut bureaucracy and
corruption in customs procedures and would speed up trade and make it cheaper.
Rules
These cover anti-dumping, subsidies and countervailing measures, fisheries subsidies, and
regional trade agreements.
The aim: “Clarifying and improving disciplines” under the Anti-Dumping and Subsidies
agreements and WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies, taking into account the importance of
this sector to developing countries
The environment
These are the first significant negotiations on trade and the environment in the GATT/ WTO.
They have two key components:
Freer trade in environmental goods. Products that WTO members have proposed include:
wind turbines, carbon capture and storage technologies, solar panels.
Environmental agreements. Improving collaboration with the secretariats of multilateral
environmental agreements and establishing more coherence between trade and environmental
rules.
Geographical indications: multilateral register for wines and spirits
This is the only intellectual property issue that is definitely part of the Doha negotiations. The
objective is to “facilitate” the protection of wines and spirits in participating countries.
Dispute settlement
Aim: To improve and clarify the Dispute Settlement Understanding, the WTO agreement dealing
with legal disputes. These negotiations take place in special sessions of the Dispute Settlement
Body (DSB). Exceptionally, they are not part of the “single undertaking” of the Doha Round.
India’s stand on Doha
● It supports Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) to protect its farmers from the import
surge.
● It supports the development agenda of the Doha round for the developing nations and
wants each country to support the same.
● The government focused on the need for the successful completion of Doha Round and
wanting developed nations to undertake greater market-opening commitments.
● India also wants rich countries to drastically reduce its ‘trade-distorting’ farm subsidies.
● India wants a permanent solution to the issue of public food stockholding in developing
countries for the purpose of food security.
● It supports duty-free and quota-free market access for developing nations.
● India has consistently opposed an expansion of the multilateral trading system in the
direction of negotiating and implementing multilateral agreements on investment,
competition policy, and government procurement – a possibility created by the Singapore
Ministerial Declaration of 1996.
● In the Doha Round, India’s then Commerce and Industry Minister emphasized on the
need to recognize the existing development deficit in the WTO agreements; and also
drew attention to the asymmetries in the agreements of the Uruguay Rounds and the
TRIPS agreement.
● It argued that IPR protection under geographical indication should not be limited only to
wine and spirits but should be extended to include other products (such as Basmati rice)
● It pushed for restrictions on the use/misuse of biological and genetic resources and
traditional knowledge.
● argued over agricultural negotiations stating that the developed countries have high levels
of agricultural subsidies and these are far greater than what these countries spent on
official development assistance.
● India demands elimination of trade-distorting domestic support from other WTO
members and has insisted on the system of proportionality (Which needs developed
nations to make greater concessions than the developed countries.)
