Australia Urges Global Rethink Of Doha Agenda

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

17 November 2011

After a decade of inconclusive talks, the Australian government has called for a rethink on the Doha Round negotiations led by the World Trade Organization that would join all WTO members in a binding commitment on further reductions of trade tariffs and prohibitive trade regulations.

To reduce the propensity for dispute, the Australian government is advocating that nations adopt a staggered approach to negotiations that would tackle each sector individually rather than as one all-encompassing agreement, starting with trade facilitation, which seeks to reduce regulation and customs bureaucracy.

“Keeping alive the Doha Round, and agreeing innovative ways to deliver on issues such as trade facilitation, will help the world get through current economic uncertainty,” said Trade Minister Craig Emerson ahead of the 23rd Ministerial Meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

“Prime Minister Gillard and I have been advocating this fresh approach in the lead-up to the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Meeting next month in Geneva,” he added.

Australia believes that the ongoing failure to reach common ground on such issues as market access and developing nations' terms means that the deal currently on the table is effectively dead and that the only way to revive it is by abandoning the 'all or nothing' principle underpinning the agreement.

The Doha Round aims to cut trade-distorting agriculture subsidies, phase out tariffs on industrial goods, open trade in services, facilitate customs operations, adjust anti-dumping rules, and offer duty-free and quota-free access to the exports of the world’s poorest countries among many other goals. The talks reached a deadlock in 2008, however.

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