CAPÍTULO II: MARCO TEÓRICO
2.2. MARCO TEÓRICO REFERENCIAL
World Trade Organization
I
t is a distinctive privilege to be here today — in this historic and beautiful city, Istanbul — to share with you our views on how the multilateral trading system could contribute to ‘making globalization work for the LDCs’. Through you, Honourable Minister, I commend the Government of Turkey for hosting this conference which is a clear reflection of the commitment of your Government to sup- port the LDCs’ efforts to better integrate into the global economy.One of the most visible aspects of globalization is the multilateral trading system. Today, there is a broad consensus that trade opening plays a vital role in growth and development. Trade opening and rule-making are indeed major goals of the WTO. But, as of today, a number of the current substantive rules of the WTO do perpetuate some bias against LDCs and other developing countries. This is true, for example, with rules on subsidies in agriculture that allow for trade-distorting subsidies which tends to favour developed countries. This is also true when we look at the high tariffs that many developed countries apply on imports of agricultural and industrial prod- ucts, in particular from developing countries. As the WTO’s director-general, Pascal Lamy, often says, while the political decolonization took place more than 50 years ago, we have not yet completed economic decolonization. A fundamental aspect of the Doha Development Agenda is therefore to redress the remaining imbalances in the multilateral trading system and to provide LDCs and developing countries with improved market opportunities.
But while trade is an essential ingredient, we also know that trade opening is not a panacea for all the challenges of development. Nor is it necessarily easy to accom- plish, or be effective, unless it is embedded in a supportive economic, social and political context.
My point is that trade opening is necessary but not sufficient in itself to ensure automatic development benefits for the people in LDCs. In fact, trade opening can only be politically and economically sustainable if it is complemented by flanking policies which address, at the same time, capacity problems — human, bureaucratic or structural — and the reforms that support an inclusive growth. This is where trade policy intersects with education and social security, with fiscal policies, with infra- structures. This policy mix must be carefully considered: coherence between foreign policy and trade, finance and development policies is paramount to making global- ization work for LDCs.
If addressing policy mix is a difficult task in developed countries, which have the necessary means to do it, it becomes a truly uphill battle in many LDCs. This is what motivated placing Aid for Trade high on the WTO agenda, together and in parallel with the Doha Round.
Aid for Trade aims at improving the capacity of developing countries to reap the benefits of more open trade. For some developing members this will mean setting up testing facilities and reliable institutions to help to ensure that exported products meet the technical, sanitary and phytosanitary regulations and standards of export
markets. For some others it would mean larger scale projects such as improving transport infrastructure and trade logistics.
The WTO has limited activities in the field, mainly focused on training, which means that the Aid for Trade initiative has been set up in collaboration with the UNDP, the World Bank, UNCTAD, the IMF, regional development banks, the OECD and other agen- cies such as the ECA who have brought their expertise to bear. The WTO will provide the platform for monitoring and regularly reviewing whether Aid for Trade is being adequately funded and delivering the expected results. In particular, we need to make sure that donors translate their pledges to increase Aid for Trade into reality. We also need beneficiaries to ensure that trade and growth priorities figure prominently in their development assistance priorities and poverty reduction strategies. Finally, we also need to work on better coordinating the assistance provided by donors.
To this end, in September and the first week of October, we will hold three regional Aid for Trade reviews in Latin America, Asia and Africa, with the cooperation of the respective regional development banks and the World Bank. All this will lead to the first global monitoring and evaluation event which will be hosted by the WTO in Geneva on 20-21 November.
In the meantime, I am also happy to report the progress achieved in the revamp- ing of the EIF which is an Aid for Trade programme with limited coverage to LDCs. Sweden is hosting in Stockholm on the 25th of September a donor’s pledging con- ference for the Enhanced Integrated Framework.
Today’s announcement by the Government of Turkey sends a strong and unequiv- ocal message to traditional and non-traditional donors that they need to translate their promises to help LDCs address their supply-side constraints and build their trade capacity into reality.
But Aid for Trade must be a complement to, not a substitute for, ambitious results in the Doha Development Agenda.
Increasing trade and investment opportunities for developing countries and, in particular, the LDCs, remains far and away the most important contribution that the WTO can make to development.
Today, the Doha Round is at a crossroads: the path towards success or the slow move towards a deep freeze.
WTO Members have pledged to conclude these negotiations around the end of the year. But if this is to be achieved, we need key progress in agricultural subsidies and tariffs on agriculture and industrial tariffs now.
What remains to be done is small compared to all the proposals already on the table, which represents two to three times what was achieved in the last round of negotiations (to mention a few examples of what will be lost if this round fail to con- clude: DFQF for at least 97 percent of LDC exports in developed countries and some developing countries, total elimination of export subsidies in 2013, more ambitious reduction of subventions and tariffs on cotton, etc.). But what remains to be done is also small compared to the potential benefits of rebalancing the multilateral trading system in favour of LDCs and developing countries.
Indeed, reaching agreement on subsidies today depends on additional conces- sions from the US equivalent to less than a week’s worth of transatlantic trade. It depends on an additional handful of percentage reduction in the highest agricultural tariffs by the EU and Japan. It depends on an additional handful of percentage reduc-
tion in the highest industrial tariffs by emerging economies such as Brazil or India. All this to be done, not by tomorrow, but over a transition period of several years to leave space for a smooth adjustment.
I hope all WTO members will bear the proportions in mind over the coming weeks when they will be called upon to make the necessary decisions. Today, the challenge is less economic than political. It is about making the multilateral trading system deliver for development. It is about making globalization work for LDCs. I urge you to remind your counterparts in developed countries and other developing countries that there are billions of people who are counting on this deal to deliver on the Millennium Development Goals.