Elizabeth Morgan | Jamaica: 25 years at WTO [Part II] - Doha Development Round or Agenda (DDA)

The Doha Development Round/Agenda (DDA) was launched at the 4th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC4) in Doha, Qatar, in 2001. The new round was reluctantly accepted by many developing countries, including Jamaica, as development priorities were to be central. Development included reviewing special and differential treatment (S&DT) provisions, and establishing a work programme on Small developing economies.

Jamaica has been active in the DDA as a member and as coordinator of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) members and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group, which allowed the country to be in the exclusive ‘green room’ deliberations. Jamaica’s then Permanent Representative Ambassador Ransford Smith, from 2002-2004, was appointed chair of the Special Session of the Committee on Trade and Development addressing specifically S&DT and other development proposals.

With the small vulnerable economies (SVEs) Group, Jamaica also sought to have the interest of these members included in the Doha negotiating text. In regular committee work, some specific SVEs proposals were eventually adopted.

In 2005, the Aid for Trade initiative resulted from the MC5 in Hong Kong as a development deliverable. The intention was to provide resources to developing members to address trade-related constraints. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in 2011, supported Jamaica in preparing its National Aid for Trade Strategy, which was presented by the Honourable Dr Kenneth Baugh, the then deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, at the biennial Global Aid for Trade Review. This strategy was referred to the Planning Institute of Jamaica for implementation.

NOT INVOLVED

Hereafter, disillusioned with the lack of progress in the DDA, developed and other interested WTO members turned their attention to negotiating comprehensive and more complex free-trade agreements outside the DDA, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Jamaica, like most WTO members, was not involved in these negotiations.

As chair of the ACP, at the 2013 MC9 in Bali, Indonesia, Jamaica’s Minister of State, Arnaldo Brown, was instrumental in brokering the consensus leading to the adoption of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation, the primary success of the DDA. Following the 2015 MC10 in Nairobi, Kenya, it was evident that the developed members had lost interest in the DDA, though negotiations would continue to discipline the application of fisheries subsidies, which is recognised as a requirement under Goal 14.6 (Oceans, Seas and Marine Resources) of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

From 2015 to 2017, Jamaica’s Permanent Representative, Ambassador Wayne McCook, chaired the Rules Negotiating Group, which deals with subsidies, including fisheries, and other trade remedy issues.

Jamaica’s foreign trade ministers have been facilitators at various ministerial conferences due to the country’s role in the DDA negotiations, among other things. Senator, Hon Kamina Johnson Smith was the facilitator for fisheries subsidies negotiations at the 2017 MC 11 in Buenos Aires. Ministers have also received invitations to Mini-Ministerial Meetings hosted by various WTO members. The most recent was that hosted by China in 2019.

LUKEWARM SUPPORT

At the WTO, developed and other interested members continued plurilateral (limited participation) negotiations on trade in services and examining ‘new’ issues, including investment facilitation, e-commerce, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Jamaica has been monitoring these plurilateral negotiations. Some CARICOM members are now participating in the MSMEs and investment- facilitation deliberations.

The US Trump administration has demonstrated its lack of confidence in the multilateral trading system (negotiations and dispute settlement) and is advocating for reform of the organisation, including differentiation and graduation of developing country members from S&DT. Support was always lukewarm for the Working Group on Small Economies. With this push to have developing countries, especially emerging economies, assume greater responsibility in trade liberalisation, the DDA is now on life support going into MC12 in June 2020.

The WTO’s future could be threatened without reform as dictated by the USA and others. The development status issue at the WTO and its implications for CARICOM members was addressed in a series of articles in The Gleaner, August/September 2019 titled ‘WTO: Members’ Development Status, Parts I-III’.

Following regional reflections on WTO issues in Barbados in January (see Gleaner article, ‘CARICOM at WTO’, January 15, 2020), Jamaica, with CARICOM and the ACP, is continuing preparations for MC12 in June.

Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.