Doha mandate key to solution

Genuine political will to solve the problem by members, developed countries in particular, will make the difference

After a decade of arduous work by WTO Members, the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations is confronted with a crisis. The issue that sparked this crisis, as mentioned by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, is the "political gap" between WTO members on tariff cuts for products in certain specific industrial sectors, referred to as "sectorials", in the non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations.

The United States, supported by the European Union and Japan, demand that Brazil, China and India (BCI) must participate in zero or close-to-zero tariff efforts in the chemical, industrial machinery, electronics and electrical products sectors, so as to equalize, or at least harmonize, their tariff levels in these sectors with those of the developed members. BCI, on the other hand, firmly believe that meeting this demand would fundamentally undermine their development objectives and that they are entitled to participate in sectorials on a non-mandatory basis as per the specific mandate agreed by all WTO members at the 6th Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in 2005. NAMA negotiations have thus reached an impasse and are regarded as blocking progress in other areas.