Rich and industrialised nations are failing to demonstrate leadership and are putting multilateral processes of world trade negotiation in jeopardy, South African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said on Monday.
Speaking in the National Assembly during his Budget vote, Erwin said a point of tension was that at the end of March “there was no agreement on how to advance the negotiations” in the Doha round on agriculture, which he described as the most crucial issue for developing countries “and indeed for the success of the development round”.
“The Doha development agenda needs to be put back on track and the major powers bear a disproportionate responsibility to do so,” said Erwin.
Erwin was referring to the trade barriers in Europe and the US for agricultural goods.
“Concluding the Doha round negotiations is crucial to supporting continued growth in the world economy and without this there will be no development for the majority of the world’s people,” he said.
“This is a profound problem that should be the real focus of humanity’s attention at present. South Africa will not shirk its leadership responsibilities and will argue these points vehemently at the forthcoming WTO ministerial to be held later this year in Mexico.”
He noted too that it was now clear that the country will have to activate the South-South alliances that it has advocated for some years.
Referring to the war in Iraq, Erwin said he believed that the world was heading for “a more difficult period for multilateralism” as a result of the war.
He said the agriculture issue would be discussed by the Cairns group of ministers — which includes agriculture ministers from Australia and South Africa — in June. – I-Net Bridge