After a long and arduous two weeks of negotiations, on 31 July 2004 the 147 member governments of WTO agreed on a framework package to keep the Doha Round of free trade negotiations active.

Director General of WTO, Dr Supachi Panitchpadki, said: “For the first time, member governments have agreed to abolish all forms of agricultural export subsidies by a certain date. They have agreed to substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support in agriculture.”

The agreement has opened way to the eventual elimination of farm export subsidies. Agreement on the sensitive issue of agriculture also paves the way for a similar understanding in other key areas such as industrial goods. “We have assigned ourselves ambitious guidelines for opening trade in manufactured products and we have set ourselves a clear agenda for improving rules that are of great benefit to developing countries,” added Dr Supachi. In his opinion, a major breakthrough has also been achieved in cotton trade, which offers a great opportunity for cotton farmers in West Africa and throughout the developed world.

The new agreement emphasises the need to push ahead the talks in five areas: agriculture, non-agricultural market access, development issues, trade facilitation and services. Acknowledging the limited progress made so far in the Doha Round, members postponed the 1 January 2005 deadline for concluding the talks to an as-yet unspecified date, at least until the sixth WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Hong Kong in December 2005. 

Almost a year ago similar talks collapsed in acrimony at a meeting in Cancun, Mexico, when Brazil led the so-called G20 group of nations and attacked the rich countries’ farm subsidies.

A successful conclusion of the Doha round could inject some hundreds of billions of dollars into the world economy and lift over half-a-billion people out of poverty.

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