Alexandre Rocha*
São Paulo – Officially, the 11th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) only begins this Sunday (13) in São Paulo. However, many of the most important matters regarding global trade began to be discussed on Friday (11) and will continue through the weekend.
On Saturday (12), for example, there will be a meeting of the G-20, a group of developing countries who struggle against agricultural subsidies conceded by rich countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) scope.
Proposals being discussed at this meeting will be taken to the G-5 meeting, taking place on Sunday and featuring representatives from Brazil, India, Australia, the United States and the European Union to deal with the agricultural matter. “Agriculture is a central theme for development,” said ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney Filho, general sub-secretary of Economic Matters for Itamaraty, Brazil’s foreign policy.
Although G-5 does not represent the totality of countries making up the WTO, Brazilian minister of foreign relations, Celso Amorim, believes the meeting will serve to unblock some controversial subjects regarding market access, domestic support and export subsidies. These subjects have been deadlocked since the WTO meeting in Cancún, Mexico, at the end of last year.
Participants in the G-5 meeting include the negotiator form the EU, Pascal Lamy and commercial representative from the USA, Robert Zoellick. Brazil and India are representatives from G-20 and Australia represents the Cairns Groups, a group of exporters of agricultural products.
Mercosur-EU
Also on Sunday, a meeting will be held between the Mercosur and EU negotiators, in hopes of forging a commercial agreement between the blocks. Amorim believes advances will be made in this area as well.
In an interview published this Friday (11) by Brazilian newspaper O Globo, Marco Aurelio Garcia, special advisor to the Presidency on international matters, declared that the Brazilian government admits having arrived at a “light” agreement with Europe.
According to O Globo, the treaty involves smaller taxes for the entry of Mercosur products into the European market, and, in contrast, less benefits to Europeans in segments such as services and investments. “A ‘light’ accord is better than no accord,” Garcia informed O Globo.
G-77
Yesterday, the G-77 meeting also began. The objective is to articulate and promote common economic interests of developing countries, and the meeting ends today. According to Qatar’s minister of Commerce and Economy, Mohammed bin Ahmed Jassim Al-Thani, the meeting, in the year of the group’s 40th anniversary, will reaffirm the commitment of its members to the organization and define the group’s future. Qatar currently occupies the group’s presidency.
The Unctad secretary general, ambassador Rubens Ricupero, added that the G-77 resolutions will serve three primary purposes. First, make it clear to the United Nations (as Unctad is a UN organ) that developmental issues cannot be left at the margin of the international agenda.
“It’s necessary that in the UN’s efforts for reform, attention be directed towards developmental problems, as there is always the risk of discussions being centred around the so-called ‘new challenges’ of peace and safety, focusing on concerns like terrorism and the end of weapons of mass destruction. It is forgotten that, although fundamental, these matters are not the totality of world problems,” said Ricupero.
He stressed that, many times, at the very root of conflict and insecurity are “poverty, disease and frustration.” “G-77 must act in order for this agenda not to be forgotten,” the ambassador added.
In second place, one of the meeting’s objectives is to pressure the placement of development issues and the struggle against poverty at the centre of commercial negotiations, especially in the WTO scope.
“The current roundtable of WTO negotiations (Doha) is called the ‘roundtable of development’ and must live up to its name,” stated the diplomat. “It is the moment to evaluate if this is occurring or not,” he added.
Commercial preferences
Lastly, Ricupero said the group’s meeting also seeks to call attention to what Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva calls the “new trade geography” of the world, in other words, increase trade between developing countries. “Commercial potential among these countries is very large, but for the most part, the surface has only been scratched,” said the diplomat.
As an example, he cited a recently Unctad study showing that trade between Mercosur and India could grow 16 times if measures were adopted towards lessening commercial barriers between these nations.
To that effect, on Wednesday (16), a new negotiations roundtable will be launched regarding the Global System of Trade Preferences Among Developing Countries (GSTP). During the roundtable, the goal will be to lessen protectionism among developing countries, “As these barriers are significant, there could be great progress in commerce among these countries if there is a reduction,” noted ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney.
However, of the 132 countries presently making up G-77, only 47 are members of the GSTP. Hugueney said that during the roundtable, expectations are that new nations will integrate. The duration of the roundtable is not yet known, but it should go on at least to the end of the year, giving new countries a chance to integrate. Hugueney, like Ricupero, said the “South-South trade” is already a reality, besides being “one of the elements injecting dynamics into the world economy.”
Also yesterday, previous to the G-77 meeting, there was a flag-raising ceremony, with the United Nations, Brazilian, and São Paulo flags being raised, at Anhembi Convention Centre, where most of the events are taking place. Besides Amorim and Ricupero, attendance included Geraldo Alckmin, governor of São Paulo state, and city mayor, Marta Suplicy. With this act, Anhembi became officially UN territory until Friday (18), when Unctad ends.
*With News Agencies
