EDITORIAL: Fighting for special treatment

WHEN he gave the inaugural Henry Gill Lecture a few months ago, Pascal Lamy the former head of the World Trade Organization highlighted that special and differential treatment (SDT) might not become a reality after all.

Last week UNCTAD official, Richard Kozul-Wright said almost as much when he spoke to the local media. He said that there is a concerted push to dilute SDT within the WTO.

Mr. Kozul-Wright is the Director of the Division on Globalization and Development at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He is in a position to know just what is going on within the WTO, which later this year will be holding a Ministerial Conference on trade matters and how to breathe fresh life into the organization.

If WTO members are not successful in safeguarding the SDT provisions then that would be a blow to the global trading system.

The WTO deals with global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

Special and Differential Treatment is one of those packages of issues developing countries have been pushing to have dealt with in the WTO. The Ministerial which will be held later this year is one of those facilities which should give more meaning to this programme for countries who want it.

According to the WTO, the SDT provisions make for longer implementation of trade agreements by small countries. SDT also requires that all WTO members safeguard the trade interest of the same countries.

These countries should also be given assistance to help them become part of the global trading system, and in the last round of global trade negotiations, ministers had agreed that the SDT provisions should be reviewed in order to strengthen them.

That in essence would make them more precise, effective and operational. That not much was made of the facility stemmed largely from it being ignored by the power breakers in the WTO.

At a recent meeting there was a report which said the provisions need to be explored. This would be the next steps on special treatment for developing countries.

The agency said too that its agreements contain over 150 provisions for developing countries and LDCs. They include access to technical assistance activities.

One group within the WTO,  the so-called G90 of which includes Barbados, is seeking to operationalise existing SDT, said the WTO. This includes establishing implementation timelines, guaranteeing technical assistance and capacity- building programmes, and ensuring that governments can pursue policies to meet their development objectives.

However, it has become a very “divisive” subject and it appears that not much will be made of it, unless hard trade negotiations are done, notwithstanding what both Ambassador Lamy, and the UNCTAD official have said.

Where that leaves us we do not know but it would certainly be one of the casualties of the WTO system.

It is expected that a lot of this will be discussed at UNCTAD 15 in Barbados later this year. It is a matter that should not be allowed to die since SDT is very dear to the hearts of developing countries.

They need free and fair trade recognising their vulnerabilities in the global set up and the SDT provisions can help.