UNCTAD
THE DOHA MANDATES
ON DEVELOPMENT ISSUES
UNCTAD
Commercial Diplomacy Programme
October 2002
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The scope of the Doha agenda
UNCTAD
the traditional trade agenda:
MARKET ACCESS
(border measures)
•Agriculture
•Services
•Non-agric market access
•Rules (dumping, subsidies,
regionalism)
the expanded trade agenda:
DOMESTIC POLICIES
(within the border measures)
•TRIPS (health, GIs)
•Trade and environment
•Singapore issues
(investment,competition, gvt.
procurement, trade facilitation)
•Debt and finance, transfer of
technology
Cross-cutting mandates :
Implementation issues (incl. textiles)
Technical assistance
LDCs and small economies
Special and differential treatment
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UNCTAD
The “single undertaking” means that,
at the end of the Doha process:
 A complex package of
various commitments
has to be agreed
as a whole
and
 Developing countries need
to achieve a new balance of
rights and obligations with a
strong development dimension
Cross-cutting
Border
measures
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The Doha Work Programme will be a concrete
UNCTAD
“Development Agenda” for developing countries
IF :
• On Implementation issues: satisfactory solutions
are found, for example:
– On the implementation of the agreement on textiles;
– On the implementation of the TRIPS and Health
Declaration.
• On Special and differential treatment (S&D):
provisions are made effective and operational, for
example :
– In helping the participation of developing countries in
trade in services;
– In making TRIPS an instrument to transfer technology.
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The Doha process will be a concrete
“development agenda” for developing countries
IF :
UNCTAD
• On agriculture: new rules accommodate both
developing competitive exporters and net food
importing countries.
• On services: the new liberalization takes into
account the requests made by developing countries
in their priority sectors.
• On non-agriculture products: barriers for the
main exports of developing countries are
eliminated, taking into account the erosion of
preferential regimes.
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UNCTAD
The state of play of the Doha process :
The main work done so far concentrates on:
• Special and differential treatment = no consensus
• Implementation issues = fragmentation in several negotiating
bodies, poor results
• Agriculture = negotiations on “modalities” ongoing (on
reduction of domestic support, market access barriers, and
export competition), many divergent positions
• Services = requests and offers process ongoing
• TRIPS: no consensus
• Market access = negotiations on modalities just starting
•The process is getting into the nitty-gritty
•No real progress in any issue
•Increasing participation and proposals of developing countries
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UNCTAD
Some deadlines to assess the development
content of the process:
 by December 2002:
– Stocktaking in
agriculture and
services
– Chairman’s modalities
on agriculture
– S&D = make
recommendations to
the General Council
– Review of technical
assistance
– Implementation issues
– Mini-ministerial in
Australia (14-15 Nov.)
 by March 2003:
– Agriculture: start
negotiations?
– Offers on services to be
submitted
– Many implementation
issues to be settled
 by Sept.2003 :
5th Ministerial Conference
(Cancun) = “mid-term review”
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The development content of the trade
agenda means:
Provide
developing
countries with means
to take advantage
of the trade
liberalisation
That requires:
1. Market access
2. Balanced trade rules
3. Negotiating and
institutional capacity
4. Supply capacity
1 and 2 can be negotiated at the WTO;
3 means technical assistance and capacity building
provided by the WTO and other agencies (UNCTAD);
4 is essential to take full benefit of the trade opportunities
arising from the negotiations : role of development
agencies and financial institutions
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Factors with direct implications for the
negotiations
• United States Trade Promotion Authority Act,
the Farm Bill, and the pending WTO disputes
(steel, orange juice…)
• European Union’s Common Agriculture Policy:
no reductions in domestic support until 2007
• Regional processes: ACP/EU, FTAA, APEC,
subregional schemes among developing
countries… and bilateral FTAs.
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UNCTAD
UNCTAD:
• Only UN entity having a mandate to review
developments and issues in the multilateral trading
system and trade negotiations since the Tokyo
Round from developing countries’ perspective;
• Trade and Development Board has a regular
agenda item: “Review of developments and issues in
post-Doha of particular concern to developing
countries” which is forwarded to UN GA under the
item “trade and development”;
• UNCTAD Post-Doha Technical Assistance and
Capacity Building Programme (demand-driven).
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