THE DOHA ROUND- WHAT DO THEY MEAN TO BELIZEANS?

The Doha Round of negotiations, which started in 2001, aims to help poor countries prosper through multilateral deals. The talks have been suspended several times due to the divergent views among developed and developing nations on key issues.

Though the World Trade Organisation (WTO) member states have set a timetable for concluding the talks for before the end of this year, Director General, Pascal Lamy, during a recent visit to China, commented that if the WTO members fail to reach a consensus on finishing the talks by the end of 2011, the reputation of the WTO will be tarnished.  This comment was an obvious hint that the talks will most likely not be concluded by  the end of this year as planned, and that unfortunately Lamy was also not assuring whether this issue would be solved in another year.

Next year will be the 10^th anniversary of the Doha Round and it is felt by many that member nations should actively grasp these opportunities and strive for breakthroughs on top of the existing proposals. Agricultural subsidies and trade barriers related to industrial goods and services are still the main issues of contention between developed and developing economies at the Doha Round.

It is also felt that the real block for the Doha talks is that some developed nations are against the achievements made in the past negotiations and are now making demands and concessions from developing nations. These actions have been dubbed by developing sates as nothing but trade protectionism, the fact that developed nations continue to not cut tariffs on agricultural and industrial products and refuse to open more of their service sectors.

The third meeting of the WTO General Council was held July 29-30 in Geneva, Switzerland, and most of these issues came up for discussion. This third 2010 meeting of the General Council discussed the new ingredients in the process that can break the impasse. Agricultural subsidies and trade barriers related to industrial goods and services remain key sticking points in 2010, and carbon tariffs on imports loom as a new arena for disputes.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) says two-thirds of its members are ready to conclude the stalled Doha Round of trade talks. They comprise mostly smaller countries that are now pushing larger economies to take the negotiations to the next stage.

As a small, open and developing economy, Belize is expected, along with its sister Caribbean states, to link and negotiate in partnership with the likes of India and other larger developing nations. It is important for our country to be prepared and to participate in a meaningful way in the discussions and at the negotiating table in CARICOM. However, this term of UDP Government has seen the Foreign Trade Unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs being disbanded and we hear nothing about our negotiating teams being prepared for the time when we will need to sit down with our partners in the Caribbean to strategize and negotiate.  Gone are the glory days when our Ministry of Foreign Affairs was ready to lead the Caribbean team at the negotiating table.

Belize’s entire strategy for increasing Trade and Investment has been sidestepped by this UDP Government. Judging from the news coming out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, it is becoming more apparent that Belize’s presence in trade negotiations have fallen back in time and that our Trade Ambassador no favours the cocktail circuit more so than the efforts to represent the interest of the nation at the negotiating table.

Given the dismal economic performance of all our exports, it is imperative that our government invest our tax dollars in promoting our goods and services. We need to promote our country to increase the tourism dollar and we need to maintain and augment our traditional exports by finding new markets.  And after the bad publicity gained by this UDP Government with foreign investors we need to build confidence in the international arena.

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