Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)

When the World Trade Organisation launched the current round of trade negotiations at Doha in 2001 Ministers named it a development round to address the concerns of poorer countries. However, the negotiations process since then suggests that the outcome might further tilt the balance against the poor. The European Union sought this round of negotiations as a development round but it is now attempting to row back. This must not be allowed to happen.

When trade Ministers meet in Hong Kong in December 2005 they must ensure that the World Trade Organisation achieves the objective of a development round. This will mean prioritising issues of concern to developing countries and dealing with these issues on the basis of the less than full reciprocity principle. Special and differential treatment must be applied to more than extended implementation timeframes to include the right of developing countries to determine that the rate of liberalisation is commensurate with their national development policies.

In this context, Article 24 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade must be amended to ensure that developing countries can continue to receive development co-operation in the form of preferential market access from industrial countries. The G8 leaders in Scotland said that developing countries should be able to choose their economic policies. That was the commitment and in Hong Kong developing countries must be given the freedom to do so. To ensure that the outcomes of the round enable the poorest countries to gain from the world trading regime policy, governments must ensure that trade policies do not exacerbate existing inequalities, impede the achievement of the millennium development goals or the implementation of agreements on human rights and, in particular, gender equality and labour standards. At a more fundamental level, the mandate and mechanisms of the World Trade Organisation must be revised to ensure the promotion of a trade regime which fosters poverty elimination.

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