NOUVELLES: NOUVELLES 2004
18 octobre 2004
COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE DU CCI
Asian, Mideast Business, Governments to review °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ Negotiation Strategies at Manila Meeting
With the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of negotiations for a new global trade pact picking up steam, Asian and Middle Eastern business leaders and governments meet in Manila this month to see how they can work together to ensure the talks produce a boost for their nations.
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At the gathering, on 21-22 October, senior-level delegations — representing
both public and private sectors in 17 countries from China to Egypt — will
review the potential impact on their economies of agreements in all areas of
the round, from agriculture and goods tariffs, to services and customs
procedures. They will seek to sharpen their national strategies in the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ
talks.
“We see this as an excellent opportunity for
business leaders and government officials to follow up on the latest
developments at the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ by determining how they can jointly make the final
outcome of the negotiations a success for their countries,” says J. Denis Bélisle, Executive Director of the Geneva-based International Trade Centre
(ITC).
Sensitive issues on the agenda back to top
Among sensitive issues on the agenda will be the
proliferation of regional trade agreements outside the global framework of
the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ; the outlook for Asia’s textile and clothing exports when the
international quota system of the last four decades disappears at the end of
this year; and the new topic on the Doha Round agenda — setting
international rules on customs procedures, or trade facilitation.
ITC, a 40-year-old technical cooperation agency of
the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, is
organizing the meeting together with the Philippine Department of Trade and
Industry as part of its mandate to provide technical support to the business
sectors of developing and transition economies.
It is the latest in a series of “Business for
Development” conferences launched by ITC, soon after the member countries of
the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ agreed in the capital of Qatar in November 2001 to begin a new round
of trade liberalization negotiations, officially titled the “Doha
Development Agenda” or DDA.
Attending the discussions at the Philippine Trade
Training Centre will be a strong delegation from the host country and
three-member teams of government and business officials from Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia,
Mongolia, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam.
A key address will come from °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ Deputy
Director-General Rufus Yerxa, who will report on recent advances in the
negotiations and focus on the potential of the “July Package” agreed in
Geneva to set the DDA back firmly on track.
The aim of the “Business for Development” meetings
series is to encourage the private sector in developing countries and
transition economies to become more engaged in setting their national
priorities for the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ talks, and to encourage governments to listen more to
business concerns.
Avoiding mistakes of the past back to top
This approach, says Peter Naray, an ITC expert on
°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ issues who spearheaded the meetings, should help prevent repetition in
the Doha talks of mistakes made in the 1986-93 Uruguay Round when businesses
found too late that governments had signed up to some global agreements that
were difficult, or impossible, to implement.
“What we want is to facilitate the integration of
business concerns into the process of negotiations,” says Mr Bélisle, a
former Canadian private company executive and senior government official,
who will deliver a keynote address in Manila together with the Philippines’
Undersecretary for Trade and Industry, Thomas G. Aquino.
The problem, says R. Badrinath, who directs ITC’s
Division of Trade Support Services, is that while the private sector in developed economies works hard and long to ensure that trade negotiators are
fully aware of what it wants and what it will accept in the final outcome of
trade talks, in poorer countries this has — until quite recently — rarely
been the case.
“Companies and even national business
organizations rarely talked to governments or even to trade ministries,” he
argues. “They assumed that international trade negotiations were outside
their competence. And the governments just assumed that the private sector
was not interested and was happy to leave it all to them.”
ITC, which in 1998 started its successful World Tr@de
Net to link firms and business groups and get them discussing how to
overcome the problem, called the first “Business for Cancún” conference in
early 2003. It held seven in all before the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ’s Ministerial Meeting in Cancún, Mexico, in September that year.
Those meetings contributed to nearly 50 developing
country and transition economy delegations to Cancún including business
representatives, some for the first time. And many of those spoke out loud
when the Meeting itself, supposed to set the DDA on the path to wrap up by
the end of this year, broke up without agreement.
Business dismayed after Cancún failure back to top
While some political leaders in developing
countries, and many non-governmental organizations opposing economic
globalization, greeted the failure of the talks as a success, private sector
representatives from Africa, Asia and Latin America made clear they saw it
as a setback that had to be overcome quickly.
“Business wants a predictable international
economic climate, with clear rules that apply to everyone,” says Mr Bélisle.
“For the private sector in developing countries, a successful DDA with a
fair and balanced outcome is vital if they are to make their businesses
grow, and their national economies with them.”
There is little doubt that the views of business
weighed heavily on governments in the months after Cancún. By the end of
July this year, the necessary compromises were reached by negotiators to
ensure the round could resume — although with a time frame now stretching
later into the decade.
Earlier this year, the “Business for Development”
series also resumed, with meetings for eastern and southern Africa in Kenya,
for European and Central Asian transition economies in Bulgaria, and for
Latin American and Caribbean countries in Brazil.
°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ envoys to offer perspectives back to top
At the Manila meeting, perspectives on the way
ahead will be offered by developing country envoys and negotiators to the
°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¹ÙÍø×ÊÁÏ in Geneva, including Indonesia’s Ambassador, Gusmardi Bustami, and
Malaysia’s Manickam Supperamaniam, as well as senior Chinese tariff
negotiator, Chen Zhiyuan, from the Beijing Finance Ministry.
Among business leaders will be Sothy Nang,
Director-General of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, Mansur Mustafa,
President of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, Nilsuwan
Leelarasamee, Deputy Secretary-General of the Federation of Thai Industries,
and Qang Dao Le, Secretary-General of the Viet Nam Textile Association.
“The countries attending represent a good spread
of economic development, and a very lively exchange of views can be expected,” says Mr Badrinath. “We think the meeting will make an important
contribution to shaping a climate among Asian business that will help push
the DDA in the right direction.”