Recommendations of the

South-South Seminar 

“From Brussels to Doha: Integrating LDCs into the Multilateral Trading System”  

14-15 July 2001, Kathmandu, Nepal

We, the civil society organisations of South and South East Asia and East and Southern Africa regions, gathered in Kathmandu, Nepal from 14 to15 July 2001 for a South-South Seminar “From Brussels to Doha: Integrating LDCs into the Multilateral Trading System” (which was also participated in by the representatives of various government, intergovernmental and international agencies), strongly feel that global trading system espoused by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has not been successful in integrating Least Developed Countries (LDCs) into the multilateral trading system.

We recognise that the poor of the world are loosing faith in the multilateral trading system and they do not see any palpable and tangible advantage in becoming part of the same because of its failure to address their concerns in the decision-making processes. 

We understand the imperatives of globalisation to have human face and the need for a development assessment of the multilateral trading system.

We feel strongly that that poverty eradication should be the ultimate goal of any economic activity whether at the national, regional or global level.

We remain highly critical of the Everything But Arms initiative and the Integrated Framework on Trade Related Technical Assistance because of their failure to deliver the goods.

We are also quite amused that Arms has been excluded, when LDCs do not have either the capacity or the desire to export tools of war and mayhem. More importantly ‘Farms’ should be liberalised at the same pace as other goods.

We are disappointed with the outcomes of the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (UNLDC III), held in Brussels from 14 to 20 May 2001, but feel that whatever precious little that has been achieved during this Conference will become meaningful only if they are incorporated in the Ministerial Declaration of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO to be held at Doha, Qatar from 9 to 12 November 2001.

We are critically aware of the need to create an enabling environment at the domestic as well as regional level in order to take full advantage of trade liberalisation.

Therefore, we feel that there is an urgent need to reverse the trend. We urge the delegates of the Special Ministerial Meeting of Least Developed Countries to be held in Zanzibar, Tanzania from 22 to 24 July 2001 to take into consideration the following recommendations so as to solidify their position for the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference.  

I.            Recommendations for Action at the International Level

1.         Market Access

·         Zero tariff and quota free access must be provided to all the LDC exports. 

·         On the issues related to Standards, the following points should be considered:

o        sufficient time period be provided for notification and compliance;

o        special protective measures be provided for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs);

o        clear understanding be made of the basis for invoking the precautionary principle;

o        consumer concerns be recognised and addressed in a manner compatible with WTO Agreements; and

o        risk analysis be based on scientific criteria.

·         Developed countries should modify the provisions on the Rules of Origin to allow greater flexibility for the LDCs to avail of the benefits of preferential trading arrangements.

·         Exports of LDCs should be totally exempt from anti-dumping and/or safeguard measures.

·         The WTO in association with UNCTAD should address the problems of lower price realisation for LDCs. 

2.            Implementation of the WTO Agreements

·         Special and differential treatment must be made binding with proper provisions for notification and monitoring. Transitional periods provided under various WTO Agreements should not be based on some milestones but they should be dynamic taking into account prevailing economic conditions in countries at various stages of development.

·         Preferential treatment should be provided to the export of textiles and clothing from LDCs post-2004.

·         Developed countries should eliminate all subsidies on agricultural products.

·         The provision of providing technical assistance to the LDCs under Article 66.2 of the TRIPs Agreement should be operationalised.

·         Governments of LDCs should be allowed adequate flexibility to ensure access and availability of drugs at affordable price and ensure food security for their population. 

·         Barriers to movement of natural persons from LDCs to developed countries should be totally eliminated.

·         Developed countries should provide technical assistance on trade facilitation to LDCs.

3.            Participation in the WTO Processes

·         All the acceding LDCs should be provided fast track accession to the WTO. No such conditionality should be applied to acceding LDCs, which are stricter than those applied to the founding LDC members.

·         WTO system should provide LDCs members resources and capacity building opportunities to enhance their participation in the WTO processes.

·         Technical capacity of LDCs must be developed for comprehending WTO issues through trainings, workshops, studies, information and education networks.  

·         The WTO members should put in more resources into the Centre for WTO Law and make it operational.

4.            Overcoming Supply Side Constraints

·         Integrated Framework should focus on strengthening infrastructure facilities in the LDCs.

·         Accelerated debt relief should be provided to the LDCs, gains of which can be utilised by them for the purpose of strengthening their infrastructure network.

·         Human resource development should be at the core aspect of technical assistance provided to LDCs.

II.     Recommendations for Action at the Regional and Domestic Levels

1.         At the Regional Level

·         Technical capacity available with the regional cooperation arrangements in which LDCs are members (such as COMESA, ECOWAS, EAC SAARC, SADC) should be utilised for channeling all the technical assistance provided to the LDCs.

·         In order to help LDCs comply with the SPS and TBT requirements imposed by the developed countries, institutional linkage should be established among the standard setting institutions of various countries.

·         Concrete arrangements should be made at the regional levels to develop physical infrastructure to enhance competitive ability of the industries within the region.

2.         At the Domestic Level

·         Existing policies related to trade, investment, competition, labour, environment and consumer protection must be reviewed and amended, where necessary, to make them more competitive.

·         Export diversification should be followed in order to overcome the problem of vulnerability to which most LDCs are exposed.

·         Products should be developed on the basis of review of dynamic competitive advantage in the regional and international markets.

Governments should develop effective national consultative mechanisms approach for regional as well as WTO negotiations and follow an inclusive approach which would ensure a broad and wide participation of all stakeholders.

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