Hong Kong Ministerial Conference of the WTO: A Leap Forward to the DDA

Abstract

The Hong Kong Ministerial Conference took place on the backdrop and hangover from the failures of some of the previous ministerial Conferences, especially of the Cancun Ministerial in 2003 to conclude the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). After failure of the third Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Seattle in 1999, the Doha Ministerial resolved to carry out trade negotiations coupled with developmental perspective and for that purpose had roughly identified twenty-one agenda items. But the DDA remained unfinished by Cancun, which had therefore caused failure of the fifth Ministerial Conference of WTO in Cancun. As a fallback measure, the July Package, 2004 was devised to save the Doha Development Round. In generality, July Package opened deadline for completion of DDA, aimed at the sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. However, none of the items were completed by Hong Kong, which could have caused failure of the Ministerial Conference. Nonetheless, under the Trade Negotiation Committee and other Committees of the WTO, enormous amount of efforts were expended to build consensus among the Members on the DDA. But because of the diverse views and positioning of the Member Countries consensus could not be achieved till the Hong Kong Ministerial. The stark differences of the Members were specially figured out on the issues of agriculture, non-agriculture market access (NAMA) and services. Nonetheless, there were some progresses.

When talks recommence, negotiators cannot simply turn up and carry on where they left off in Hong Kong. They need to examine their consciences. They cannot simply be content that they have bought off the LDCs. In order for the world's poor to gain benefit from the multilateral trading system, the developed countries' markets as well as the markets of the emerging developing economies must be opened significantly. In other words, market access negotiations on agriculture, NAMA and services must be conducted at an expedited pace and they must deliver tangible results. Only by achieving this, the DDA can truly be turned into a development round for the world's poor. The matter is urgent and there is no room for complacency.

Keywords: DDA, Hong Kong Ministerial, July Package, WTO