Bernal
Caricom's lead trade negotiator, Richard Bernal, says that the latest breakdown in world trade talks is not fatal to the negotiations and warned the region against joining the 'hysteria' that deadlock could lead to the collapse of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
In fact, Bernal is confident that after the summer holidays, trade negotiators in the world's capitals
will begin to re-engage, with new proposals being placed on the table. At worst, he believes the head of Caricom's Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), the Doha Round of trade talks, will just take longer than expected.
AVOIDING A BAD DEAL
"It is better to take longer and get a good deal than rush into a bad deal," Bernal, a Jamaican economist and diplomat, told Wednesday Business. "I was always of the view that it was unrealistic that all the things that are on the agenda of the Doha Round could be accomplished in four years. The previous trade talks, the Uruguay Round took eight years and all its work was not completed.
What, if anything, is being lost (by the delay) is the potential benefits."
WTO members have been negotiating for over four years on a deal to widen trade in manufactured and agricultural products and services, but have not made the hoped-for headway.
Caribbean countries, while seeking improved market access for their products, have argued for special and differential treatment, given their nature of being mainly small island states with vulnerable economies. This would translate in longer adjustment periods to freer trade, less tariff reductions, and where possible, continued protection of preferential markets.
"We do not believe that developing countries' issues have got adequate attention in the negotiations," said Bernal.
On Monday the trade body called a halt in the negotiations after the major six powerful members - the United States, the European Union, Brazil, India, Japan and Australia - meeting in Geneva, failed to break a deadlock over farm subsidies.
The United States has been criticised for not going far enough in cutting subsidies to their farmers and for not agreeing to deeper cuts to agricultural tariffs, while large developing countries such as Brazil and India were branded as being inflexible on barriers to industrial imports.
IN DIRE STRAITS
"We are in dire straits," said Pascal Lamy, the WTO's director general, after Monday's breakdown and his call of the halt to the negotiations.
No new date was set for negotiations to resume and there have been suggestions that the talks are all but dead, given the fact that U.S. 'fast track' authorisation, which allows President George Bush to strike a deal expires next year. Some analysts say the breakdown of the talks could lead to a series of bilateral trade pacts, leading to the diminution of the WTO.
Bernal does not agree.
"This is not fatal to the process," said Bernal, whose Caribbean Community is a trading and functional cooperation grouping of 15 Caribbean countries, most of which are establishing a single market. "We must not get caught up in the hysteria that the suspension will destroy the WTO."
Added Bernal: "The U.S. has this gun to the head of the process. It has in the past held this gun to the head of the process and it has not gone off. It is the business of the U.S. administration, whether this president or another one, to get the authorisation."
In the meantime it was up to the United States and the EU to use the breathing space provided by the suspension of the negotiations to come back to the table with workable compromises, according to Bernal.
"They must find the necessary flexibility to provide an offer which would allow them to agree and then allow the rest of the membership of the WTO to feel that a meaningful step has been made and put themselves in the position to reciprocate with their own market opening offers,"
he said.
"We are in dire straits," said Pascal Lamy, the WTO's director-general after Monday's breakdown and his call of the halt to the
negotiations.
