World Trade Organisation chief welcomes strong APEC support for Doha Round

 The Dollar Business Bureau Continued backing from APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) and all other World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministers will be “critical” to reaching agreement on a work programme for concluding the Doha Round, said WTO Director-General (DG) Roberto Azevêdo. The Doha Round is the latest round of trade negotiations among the WTO membership. Its aim is to achieve major reform of the international trading system through the introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules. The DG also welcomed the strong statement of support issued by APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) trade ministers at their meeting in Boracay, the Philippines, on May 23-24, 2015 for other WTO initiatives. The meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) included a detailed discussion of APEC's ongoing support for the multilateral trading system across a range of areas. Attention was particularly focused on the ongoing discussions in Geneva to agree by July a clearly defined work programme on the remaining Doha Development Agenda issues and on preparations for the WTO Ministerial Conference meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, at the end of the year. The DG said, “The support of APEC and indeed all WTO members will be critical in the months ahead as we seek to agree the Doha work programme by the end of July. I was able to brief Ministers on the constructive engagement in Geneva in areas including agriculture, industrial products and services that shows members’ willingness to doing everything possible to ensure a detailed work programme can be agreed. While positive about the overall levels of engagement, I was nevertheless clear that we only have limited time until July and there are significant divergences that need to be bridged, particularly in agriculture which is one of the critical issues”. Just as he had outlined to all WTO members at the Trade Negotiations Committee meeting on 27 April, the Director-General also described the process of meetings that has been taking place in Geneva led by negotiating chairs as well as his own efforts to facilitate discussions. He said, “It was encouraging in my discussions to have Ministers’ support for the process we have agreed in Geneva of meeting in a range of formats, large and small, as the best way to move issues forward. A combination of meeting formats is important as smaller meetings can be helpful in focusing on some of the key issues where solutions need to be found. I have also welcomed the fact that some of the larger members have taken the initiative to talk to each other in a more direct, frank and exploratory fashion on the gateway issues. This is symptomatic of a level of engagement that is serious and different to anything we have seen since the Bali meeting in 2013.” The Director-General explained that transparency and inclusiveness will continue to be hallmarks of the process as WTO moves forward. On his return to Geneva, he will convene a meeting of all members to brief them on his recent discussions, as well as those that negotiating group chairs have been conducting. A notice to advise the date of this meeting will be issued shortly, said a WTO release. The Director-General also welcomed the discussions taking place at the APEC MRT on a number of other WTO-related issues, including the Information Technology Agreement. “APEC members have played a key role in efforts to expand the list of products covered by the WTO Information Technology Agreement. Expanding this agreement would cut tariffs on a wide-range of products with a global trade value of roughly $1 trillion, and so the potential economic gains from such an agreement would be significant. Importantly these benefits would be open to all WTO members. I therefore encourage the participants to do all that they can to find convergence on the few remaining issues as quickly as possible,” the Director-General said. The Director-General also congratulated the Philippines, in its role as APEC Chair, for the Boracay Action Plan to Globalize Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises which was endorsed at the meeting. “This year's MRT has been extremely productive across a range of areas. In addition to the support for the WTO, I particularly welcome the key role that the Philippines’ Secretary for Trade and Industry Domingo has played as MRT Chair to advance APECs work on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. SMEs play a key role in today's global trading system and APEC's work is clearly of relevance to the WTO. I have asked Secretary Domingo to encourage APEC members to brief all WTO members on their work,” the Director-General said.      

May 26, 2015 | 5:00 pm IST.