Doha Round of WTO Agreements

This study is based on why the Doha rounds of the WTO agreements stalled and what are the implications for the least developed and the emerging countries. The Doha rounds have stalled and it going nowhere. The negotiations at the ministerial conference did not yield any fruitful result. The reasons for the round getting stalled is well known to the world. Whereas, due to stalling of the round the several developing nations like India, Brazil did not face any major issue.

Running head: POLITICAL SCIENCE
Doha Round of WTO Agreements
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The World Trade Organization is an exclusive international organization that explicitly
deals with the trade rules between different nations. At the core of the organization are the WTO
agreements which are negotiated and signed by the trading nations of the world and at the same
the agreements are ratified in their respective parliaments. The goal of the organization is to
ensure that the business transaction and world trade occur smoothly and as free as possible. The
WTO has 160 member countries and this represents 98 percent of global trade. The prime
decision making body is the Ministerial Conference, that meets once in 2 years and this meeting
bring all the WTO members together. The ministerial conference takes in to account all the
matters under the multilateral trade agreements (World Trade Organization 2018). This study is
based on why the Doha rounds of the WTO agreements stalled and what are the implications for
the least developed and the emerging countries.
In November 2001, the fourth ministerial conference took place in Doha, Qatar. The
WTO member had a consensus that they will initiate new negotiations. These negotiations are
based on working out the present issues and also to address the present agreements. The entire
package as a whole is called Doha development agenda (DDA). The negotiations took place in
the subsidiaries of and in the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC). These committees are either
regular committees and councils or councils they are specially formed negotiation groups. In the
Doha ministerial conference, the developing nations were complaining about the difficulties they
were facing with regard to the implementation of the WTO agreements. The new items that were
first mentioned in Doha are: multilateral environmental agreements, trade barriers on the
environmental goods and services, subsidies on fisheries. The prime objective of the Doha round
of negotiations under the aegis of World Trade Organization is the promotion of the free trade
(Bagwell and Staiger 2013). The four main focus areas were:

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 Reduction of the antidumping laws- The WTO rules allow the member countries
to impose the antidumping duties on the products on the foreign countries which
are sold at a cheaper price in comparison to the prices at home and even below the
cost of production. This directly hampers the domestic products and significantly
harm the domestic business.
 Phasing out the subsidies- in the production of the agricultural products, subsidies
play a major role in bringing market distortions. The result of the agricultural
subsidies plays a major role in reducing the volume of the agricultural trade,
prices rise for the customers, and subsidies encourage the overproduction of
similar kind of agricultural products (because government is buying surplus from
the agricultural producers).
 The intellectual property should allow the poorer nations to have the health
protection provisions. Within the time limit of one year the rich countries must
comply with the rules. Whereas, for the poorer nations there is a grace period of
five years and ten years for the very poor nations.
 Reduction of the tariffs on industrial goods and services- for the year 2000, the
agricultural products had a tariff of 4.4 percent for Canada. For European Union it
is 4.5 percent, 4 percent for Japan, and 4.7 percent in United States. Similarly for
the agricultural products the average Tariffs rates were 22.9 percent in Canada.
For European Union it is 17.3 percent, 18.2 percent in Japan and 11 percent in
United States (Bagwell and Staiger 2011).
 E-commerce- Countries will not collect custom taxes or duties on the internet
services or products.

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 Dispute settlement- for the better settlement of the disputes, recommendations
were applied.
 Trade and environment- coordination of the trade agreements with the trade rules
for the protection of the natural in the developing countries.
 Differential and special treatment- special treatment to be provided for the
developing countries. It was provisioned that the developed countries must
safeguard the interests of the developing nations, while at the same time provide
financial assistance to the developing nations for the buildup of the technical
standards and the infrastructure (Bagwell and Staiger 2011).
Doha development was important because if the agenda was successful, it would have
improved the condition of the developing nations. In the developed nations, the government
spending on the subsidies would have reduced and would have boosted the financial companies.
The negotiations at the Doha round stalled indefinitely because the outcome of the round was not
beneficial mostly for the developed countries (Dosi and Stiglitz 2014). United States especially
knew that it cannot compromise on cutting the subsidies that it provides to its agricultural sector.
The European Union also knew that if the Doha round gets ratified then it would have to cut its
agricultural tariffs. The other emerging countries on the other hand knew that they would also
have to reduce or cut the agricultural tariffs. Even it took 5 years for the Doha round to prepare
itself, still the major players did not step in to make the Doha round a success. Similar to the
Doha round, brinkmanship and the deadlocks are bound to occur during the passage of the trade
negotiations. The Uruguay round also came to a standstill before reaching any meaningful
conclusion. Whereas, there as certain reasons why the Doha round was more complicated with
respect to its predecessors (Schwab 2011). The presence of the poor countries in this round is a

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welcome change and was considered as an organized force. The poor countries have the right to
speak about their problems and must be provided special treatment. Whereas, the reality is that
these poor countries are nothing offered in return and are a drag on the system. The preferential
countries which included the small states of the Pacific, Caribbean and Africa have interests in
the round. The big developing nations like Brazil and India are willing to negotiate hard and
even ready to derail the round to promote their own national interests and aims (Scott and
Wilkinson 2011). The second reason can be traced to the slow progress arising from the trade
negotiations and political calculus. In majority of the countries the political zeal and will was
low. In countries like United States and France, the president was newly elected and did not want
to go against the powerful agricultural lobby. The major reason that can be cited for the stalling
of the Doha round is the agricultural subsidy. Be it the bigger developing nation or the developed
nations, these countries provide a lot of subsidies for their agricultural output to the agricultural
farms. These subsidies not only increases the viability of the agricultural products within the
country but also its export earnings increases in comparison to the other poor nations. Whereas,
considering the developing nations, these nations subsidize the agricultural products in order to
sustain the daily life and the agricultural produce of the farmers. Such developing nations include
India and Brazil (Vieira and Alden 2011).
The Doha rounds have stalled and it going nowhere. The negotiations at the ministerial
conference did not yield any fruitful result. The reasons for the round getting stalled is well
known to the world. Whereas, due to stalling of the round the several developing nations like
India, Brazil did not face any major issue. The deadlock proved to be beneficial for the
developing nations. Because if the Doha round would have got ratified, the burden of tariff
reduction on the imports would have entirely on the developing nations. Reduction of import

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tariffs would have indirectly benefitted the developed nations. Consequently, reduction in
subsidies to the agricultural sector could have spelt a disaster for the developing nations (Ezeani
2013). A majority of the developing country rely heavily on the agriculture, the poor farmers
thus require the much needed subsidy from the government for the purpose of sustainable
development of the agriculture. The deadlock resulted in to keeping the status quo on the
agricultural subsidy. Had the Doha round been ratified it would have resulted in greater perils for
the developing nations. The non-tariff like the standards with respect to the packaging
requirements, sanitary and phytosanitary standards remain to restrict the export of the products
from the developing countries in the developed nation’s market. It was also discussed at the
Doha rounds that the least developed nations will be provided with aid for trade. The aid for
trade was to assist the developing nation’s capability and to prosper in international trade. Such,
opportunities are completely missed due to the stalling of the Doha rounds (Hoekman and Nicita
2011).
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, Doha rounds integrated
the poor nations in to a global conference on tariffs, agriculture, environment and global trade.
The trade although benefitted the developed nations but the reduction of the agricultural subsidy
was not promoted and mooted by the developed nations. The presidents of USA and France were
newly elected and did not want to confront with the powerful agricultural lobby. The lack of
show of will developed nations resulted in to the derailment of the Doha round, and it has
impacted the hopes of the developing nations that relied largely on the ratification of the round.

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Reference
Bagwell, K. and Staiger, R.W., 2011. What do trade negotiators negotiate about? Empirical
evidence from the World Trade Organization. American Economic Review, 101(4), pp.1238-73.
Bagwell, K. and Staiger, R.W., 2013. Can the Doha Round be a development round? Setting a
place at the table. In Globalization in an Age of Crisis: Multilateral Economic Cooperation in
the Twenty-First Century (pp. 91-124). University of Chicago Press.
Dosi, G. and Stiglitz, J.E., 2014. The role of intellectual property rights in the development
process, with some lessons from developed countries: an introduction. Intellectual property
rights: Legal and economic challenges for development, 1, pp.1-55.
Ezeani, E., 2013. WTO post Doha: trade deadlocks and protectionism. Journal of International
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Hoekman, B. and Nicita, A., 2011. Trade policy, trade costs, and developing country trade.
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Schwab, S.C., 2011. After Doha: why the negotiations are doomed and what we should do about
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Scott, J. and Wilkinson, R., 2011. The poverty of the Doha Round and the least developed
countries. Third World Quarterly, 32(4), pp.611-627.
Vieira, M.A. and Alden, C., 2011. India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA): South-South
cooperation and the paradox of regional leadership. Global Governance, 17(4), pp.507-528.
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