Jun 29, 2008

WTO: Battlelines Being Drawn For July Ministerial

This article from The Statesman suggests that the developed countries and the WTO Secretariat are trying to restrict the subject matter for the 21-24 July Ministerial meeting to just agriculture and non-agricultural market access NAMA). Developing countries want a wider agenda. We at The Hive want a wider agenda too. Services needs to be on the list also. With NAMA in trouble the EU and US (and India) will need some gains elsewhere if the deal on agriculture is to get through. The trouble is there have been virtually no liberalisation offered on services. There is therefore a huge amount of work to be done to whip services into shape, but not much time to do it.