By the time the conference
was finally ending, it was clear that few,
if any, nations got everything they wanted
out of it. That is the very nature of a
talking shop. So the big question is what
will Doha be remembered for?
Will
it be the new catchphrase, "The Doha Round" or
the "Doha Development Round"-the latest and
most optimistic buzzwords in the conference halls of
the world's trade ministers? Not really. It will be
remembered if millions of HIV/AIDS or malaria sufferers
suddenly find they can get their drugs cheaply because
this Geneva-based organization managed to steer a change
in patent rules.
Without doubt, in the opinion of South African
Trade and Industry Minister Alexander Erwin, success
on the issue of intellectual property and cheaply
available drugs - or the Trade Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) dossier
in the parlance of the conference - in times of
health emergencies would change public opinion
hostile to globalization almost overnight.
"This is not simply a developing country
concern," Erwin said. "For a relatively
small price, this organization will gain increased
legitimacy in the eyes of our people and many critics." Erwin's
remarks were made in what analysts agreed was one
of the most important keynote addresses to the
142 member nations of the WTO. Speaking for the
developing nations which constitute four-fifths
of the WTO membership, Erwin, a member of the South
African parliament, said the conference and the
WTO would also be remembered in a more favorable
light if the WTO was able to reinvent itself.
"We are underestimating the extent to which
we are a global economy. We do this despite the
fact that recent events have shown this with appalling
violence and the loss of innocent young lives.
We still want to live in a world where we could
manage our global economic relations with a conference
every few years. It will not work again. Our interconnectivity
is now so great that we need to ensure that there
is an ongoing process of governing our trade and
investment relations. We will have to find a new
way of doing things," he said.
As the conference winds up, a senior European
official told this newspaper that the ideals expressed
by Erwin were not far fetched. But in a world where
every country defends its own turf, its own national
interests, often pursuing a narrow national interest
to please public opinion or government leaders
back home, it might be. But the text agreed on
in Doha will be weighed by the public at large,
their opinions guided largely by the nongovernmental
organizations monitoring the proceedings. Whether
that is fair or not, is also another question.
"We can only hope that there is something
for everyone in this," shrugged the official
who requested anonymity. "As the biggest trading
entity in the world, the 15 EU nations have spoken
with one voice here. We want a new Doha Round.
It is critical not only for ourselves, but for
developing nations seeking a change in the rules."
All through the conference, the danger was that
too much attention was given to the complex details
of world trade, leaving many countries to despair
that there simply was not enough time. They found
the agenda too broad, the goals too vague.
"We simply did not have enough time here
in Doha to discuss things and make intelligent
choices," said Kofi K. Apraku, Ghana's minister
of trade and industry. "This is a conference
that is supposed to set the stage for negotiations,
not one aimed at resolving the issues immediately."
Mike Moore the Director General of the WTO agreed,
throughout the week he reminded delegates that
the goalposts were merely to set the stage, not
to resolve ongoing issues that take years and years,
and which in effect are never resolved, but merely
managed in a proper rules-based system.
Erwin agreed: "The
specific details, where the multiplicity of our
varied interests and needs
will be addressed, will have to come in the next
few years as the architectural plan is translated
into the commercial law and interaction that will
government our global economy."
And he warned: "At
present the WTO is seen by a wide variety of
social groups as the embodiment
of the evils of globalization. This has led in
turn to a diffuse response to the inherent challenges
facing the WTO by the political leaders of the
world. The result is merely to strengthen skepticism
and frustration."
And speaking from
what he called the "margins
of the multilateral trading system," Peter
Kaleso, Malawi's minister of commerce and industry,
said he hoped his southern African nation, which
is listed as one of the world's least developed
countries, would have its voice heard. "A
lot more needs to be done to get the developing
countries and the least developed countries integrated
into the WTO."
A working multilateral trading system will boost
global economic development, and therefore, Kaleso
said, strengthen the pillars of world peace. His
refrain here was heard in almost every speech by
representatives of developing nations. It was also
repeatedly stated by EU officials. But everyone
knows that if you have enough to eat and enough
money to spend you're less likely to go to war.
If Doha can be remembered for that wisdom, it will
not have ended in vain.
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