FAFTA braces for battle against Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership'
THE HANS INDIA | Jun 16,2017 , 04:03 AM IST
Title : TWN Info: North to try to bury DDA, push e-commerce & MSME talks at MC11
Date : 2017-06-16
Contents:
TWN Info Service on Trade and UN Sustainable Development
16 June 2017
Third World Network
North to try to bury DDA, push e-commerce & MSME talks at MC11
Published in SUNS #8481 dated 14 June 2017
Geneva, 13 Jun (D. Ravi Kanth) -- Major developed countries and their
"allies" in the developing world have intensified efforts to quietly
bury the Doha Development Agenda negotiations while launching
negotiations on electronic-commerce and micro, small, and medium
enterprises (MSMEs) at the World Trade Organization's eleventh
ministerial conference in Buenos Aires in December, several ministers
and trade envoys told SUNS.
Encouraged by the positions adopted by the United States at the
informal ministerial meeting of select countries in Paris last week, the
developed countries - the European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, Norway and Switzerland - along with Brazil, Argentina, Mexico,
Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, Singapore, and Hong Kong-China are
preparing the ground for launching negotiations on e-commerce and MSMEs
in Buenos Aires under the banner of "development-oriented" priorities,
said trade envoys familiar with the development.
Following the deliberations in Paris, the proponents of e-commerce
and MSMEs are assuming that the US will not walk away from the WTO
despite the adverse pronouncements made by the Trump administration.
Trade ministers and envoys who took part in the Paris meeting
maintain that Washington will announce its bilateral and multilateral
trade priorities, including its review of the work at the WTO, in
October, as per the 180-day review announced by the Trump
administration.
The US will then make its positions clear on the outcomes it will
either support or remain silent at the Buenos Aires meeting, said a
source from a major developed country who asked not to be quoted.
Probably, the US will make it explicitly clear that the Doha Round is
dead and that it will not accept its continuation in any form, in the
180-day policy review.
The US has already said that it will not negotiate minimal
improvements, such as transparency and due process in the anti-dumping
provisions, at the Doha rules negotiating body meeting.
Effectively, the US will allow fisheries subsidies negotiations in
the Doha rules dossier but not improvements in anti-dumping provisions.
In short, members must make commitments in fisheries subsidies without
securing commensurate outcomes in other areas of the rules negotiations.
Until now, the proponents of MSMEs and electronic commerce were
unable to muster courage to openly declare that the Doha Round is dead
and that they will not participate in negotiations on the outstanding
issues as per the Doha Work Program (DWP), the source said.
But, after the US makes its position clear on the termination of the
Doha Round, the decks will be cleared for a formal burial in Buenos
Aires by the silent supporters of the US position on the Doha issues.
Consequently, the remaining members - who strongly support the Doha
Work Program - in Africa, Asia, and South America will not be able to
resist the so-called new "development-oriented" issues on MSMEs and
electronic commerce, these sources believe.
For the last many months, particularly since the Nairobi meeting, the
supporters of the new issues have not mentioned the Doha Work Program
even remotely in their proposals either on domestic support or fisheries
subsidies.
However, they have now added the tag of "development-oriented" to
their proposals on MSMEs, e-commerce, and other issues which are not
part of the Doha Work Program.
The proponents will also make a concerted effort to sound their new
proposals in Washington so as to get a tacit approval from the US
administration, the source said.
Further, the proponents of the new issues will seemingly engage on
mandated-issues such as the permanent solution for public stockholding
programs for food security and special safeguard mechanism.
However, the proponents of MSMEs and e-commerce will doubly ensure
that either there is no outcome on the PSH (public stockholding
programs) or it is twisted and burdened with conditionalities that will
make the solution infructuous, the source suggested.
An early test for the proposals on the new issues will come in the
two meetings of capital-based senior officials from select countries -
which will be organized by Argentina next month in Geneva.
Those two meetings will finalize the likely agenda for the Buenos Aires meeting before the summer break in August.
Subsequently, for almost two months - i. e September and the first
half of October - efforts will be further mounted to finalize the
elements of the proposed issues so that the select group of ministers
could discuss in Marrakesh in October, the source maintained.
As part of the "development-oriented" priorities for the Buenos Aires
meeting, Argentina along with Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay submitted a
proposal on MSMEs as "a development outcome" for the eleventh
ministerial meeting.
In their four-page proposal, the four countries said "MSMEs should
become an important component of a development-oriented agenda at the
WTO."
"By undertaking to consider the issue of MSMEs as part of future
discussions within the framework of the WTO, Members have the
opportunity to take a decisive step to accomplish the WTO's mission of
contributing to economic development and raising standards of living,"
the four countries argued.
Under the banner of "friends of development", the four countries
maintained that "while some challenges are shared by MSMEs from both
developed and developing countries, particular attention and specific
positive efforts should be aimed at levelling the playing field in
favour of MSMEs from developing countries and least developed countries
(LDCs), which face additional obstacles and gaps in productivity."
As part of the "international trade issues related to MSMEs," the
four countries want members to discuss issues such as "information and
transparency", "trade facilitation," "e-commerce," "MSMEs and trade
financing," and other issues such as "concrete actions to help reduce
trade costs of non-tariff barriers (NTBs), which place a
disproportionate burden on MSMEs, and technical assistance and capacity
building initiatives focused on trade needs of MSMEs."
Further, the four South American countries urged "all Members to
present their proposals and suggestions on the topics they suggested."
"We call the membership to participate in the open-ended, informal
dialogue on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises ("Friends of MSMEs") to
explore concrete measures that Members could take to enable their
participation in world trade," they argued in their proposal.
The four countries said members most work together "in order to
adopt, at the Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, a Ministerial
Decision creating a Work Program [launching negotiations] that addresses
the specific needs of MSMEs."
In short, the stage is set for the burial of the Doha Development
Agenda negotiations while launching negotiations on new issues under the
false banner of "development-oriented" priorities.
It remains to be seen whether the other developing countries who
worked hard on the developmental issues in the Doha agenda for the past
16 years will let their core issues to be buried without any outcome
once and for all in Buenos Aires or they would unitedly resist such an
outcome, if necessary, by ensuring failure of MC11 at Buenos Aires as at
Cancun, sources said. +
Jun 16 2017 : The Times of India (Hyderabad)
`RCEP trade policy to hit farmers hard'
Hyderabad:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
After farmers and workers in the country weathered the impact of
WTO, a new threat now looms in the form of the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which India will soon
become a signatory .
Ahead of a meeting in Hyderabad in July of trade representatives
of 17 countries, NGOs working on farmer and worker rights said the
RCEP free trade agreement will negatively impact livelihoods of
farmers and workers.
Representatives of the Telangana Rythu JAC, All India langana
Rythu JAC, All India Kisan Sabha, AIKMS, Rythu Swarajya Vedika and
Telangana Raithanga Samiti, trade unions such as AITUC, IFTU, PSI
and Dalit Women's Union and people's organizations such as
National Alliance of Dalit Organizations, Jana Vigyana Vedika,
Dalit Bahujan Front and Doctors Without Borders were among those
who spoke with the media here on Thursday on the proposed free
trade agreement and its impacts on India.
They said they will chalk out a plan to protest and oppose India's
entry when the 18th round of RCEP takes place in the city from
July 17 to July 28. They also said they will hold a `People's
Convention on RCEP and Free Trade Agreements' in the city during
the last week of July .
They said RCEP requires countries to make import duties to zero as
soon as the agreement comes into force. Farmers would not get good
prices for their crops because of cheap imports. Dairy farmers
will face dumping from Australia and New Zealand, which produces
500% surplus milk compared to their requirement.
Our Bureau
Plan to flag malefic effect on economy
Hyderabad, June 15:
As India gets ready to host the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP) meeting among ASEAN members, a group of
farmers, trade unions, intellectuals and non-governmental
organisations have gathered here to oppose the talks.
They alleged that the provisions of the free trade agreements
could severely hurt the Indian economy and could impact the
incomes of farmers, the dairy industry, agri-based industries and
some other sectors.
The meeting here on Wednesday was intended to educate stakeholders
and discuss the likely adverse impacts of the RCEP on the Indian
economy and on livelihoods.
The crucial round of the RCEP is scheduled to be held in Hyderabad
in July, with representatives from 16 ASEAN members and
representatives from the countries that were associated with it
forming into working groups to deliberate on various aspects of
the partnership.
Talking on the RCEP negotiations, Afsar Jafri of the Focus on the
Global South, alleged that there was no transparency in the
deliberations. “There is no process of ratification by Parliament.
The States are not being taken into confidence though agriculture
is a State subject in India,” he said.
The RCEP is one of the three largest ‘mega regional’ FTAs (free
trade agreements) being negotiated in the world. Apart from India,
the RCEP includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New
Zealand, along with the 10 ASEAN countries.
Shalini Bhutani, a Delhi-based researcher on FTAs, said the RCEP
was more demanding than the WTO (World Trade Organisation). “The
WTO offers some flexibility, but the RCEP offers none,” she said.
The RCEP requires countries to reduce make import duties to zero
as soon as the agreement comes into force.
Representatives from AITUC, IFTU, Telangana Rythu Joint Action
Committee, Rythu Swarajya Vedika, Telangana Raithanga Samiti,
National Alliance of Dalit Organisations and Doctors Without
Borders attended the meeting to discuss the RCEP fallout.
“The next meeting of the committee will happen on June 19 to chalk
out the specific actions planned to protest the RCEP
negotiations,” Kiran Kumar Vissa of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, said.
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