Resolution on the state of play of the Doha Development Agenda in advance of the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference

The European Parliament adopted by 500 votes to 125, with 23 abstentions, a resolution prepared by the Committee on International Trade on the state of play of the Doha Development Agenda in advance of the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference.

Members reiterated their full commitment to the enduring value of multilateralism and called for a trade agenda based on free and fair trade for the benefit of all, which should have development at the centre of the process.

Negotiations: Members stressed the importance of taking full account in the negotiations of the special needs and interests of low-income developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs).  There is a need to ensure that the principle of special and differential treatment (S&DT) constitutes an integral part of the negotiations, reflecting the varying economic development levels of WTO members. Meaningful S&DT provisions must be made more precise, subject to periodic reviews and targeted to respond to the need of those developing countries and LDCs which are most in need.

They supported a structural reform of the WTO, in order to better guarantee an open, fair and non-discriminatory trading system based on shared and applied rules, which takes greater account of the role and interests of a variety of economic operators, such as SMEs, microenterprises and innovative start-ups.

Members considered that trade liberalisation is an important tool to ensure sustainable economic growth and development, but that it needs to be accompanied by appropriate flanking policies encompassing macro- and micro-economic measures, including budget transparency, fiscal policies and tax equity, administrative simplification, education and training, institutional reforms and social policies, so as to maximise and distribute better the benefits of trade reforms and effectively counterbalance any negative effects.

Facilitation of exchanges: Members called upon all WTO members for speedy ratification and implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement so that it can enter into force in time for MC10. This agreement will bring significant benefits to all WTO members, and in particular to developing countries and to relevant economic operators. They encouraged the WTO membership to proactively support the WTO’s efforts in establishing effective and efficient working links and deeper cooperation with other international organisations whose work has a bearing on world trade talks, in particular the International Labour Organisation, the World Health Organisation, and the UN and its agencies and bodies, as well as the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD, etc.

They supported efforts aiming for the adoption of international standards and regulatory cooperation.

Take account of the varying of situations: Members are convinced that the failure to take into account sufficiently the widely varying economic development levels and specific needs between developing countries, could be an obstacle to adopting effective measures to benefit these countries in accordance with the stated objective of the Doha Round and is to the detriment of those developing countries that are most in need. They urged advanced developing countries to take their share of responsibility already during the current round and to make contributions commensurate with their level of development and sectoral competitiveness. They recalled the importance of using effective criteria to differentiate, by not only taking into account GNP growth, but also indicators such as the economic vulnerability index and the trade and development index.

Promote the inclusion of the European Parliament in the context of the negotiations: Members stressed the crucial importance of the WTO for regulations-based world trade and as regards implementing and enforcing binding commitments and settling trade disputes. Members called on the Commission and the Council to ensure that Parliament continues to be closely involved in the preparation of MC10, is promptly updated and, if necessary, is consulted during the Ministerial Conference. The Commission is called upon to continue to make the case to other WTO Members for increasing the importance of the parliamentary dimension of the WTO.

Lastly, Parliament called on the WTO Members to ensure democratic legitimacy and transparency by strengthening the parliamentary dimension of the WTO. It stressed, in this connection, the need to ensure that parliamentarians have better access to trade negotiations and are involved in the formulation and implementation of WTO decisions.