WTO talks highlight emerging nations’ power

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: over $2 trillion, Russia is yet to get WTO membership.

Inspite of BRIC’s increasing influence in WTO talks, many experts are doubtful whether it would translate into any immediate gains for these countries. Says Pradeep S Mehta, secretary general of CUTS International, an NGO tracking WTO talks: “Brazil, India and China would lose only very marginally even if the Doha Round talks were to fail ultimately. Besides, the South-South trade (or the trade between the developing countries) is growing as against traditional rich OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) markets.”Noting the growing South-South trade, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) took the initiative to hold negotiations of the Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP) among developing countries. Currently, there are 43 developing country members of GSTP, but it does not include China and South Africa.

“Already the third round of GSTP talks is getting closer to completion. When it is completed, the developing country-to-developing country market access issues will be taken care of,” says Nagesh Kumar, director general of the New Delhi-based think-tank Research and Information System for Developing countries (RIS).

Lakshmi Puri, acting deputy secretary general, UNCTAD, says the GSTP countries account for $1.8 trillion in exports and $1.6 trillion in imports. “They account for 50% of South-South trade. Total intra-GSTP exports is $813 billion and in Asia 25% is intra-GSTP trade,” she adds. The GSTP can facilitate South-South trade liberalisation and also help countries like India gain market access in other important developing country markets in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean without having to enter into bilateral trade agreements with each of them, experts say. This way, GSTP can also save countries like India from making major concessions to developed countries at WTO.

According to UNCTAD, the share of developing countries in world trade tripled from 1995 to $3.7 trillion, or around 36% now. Also, South-South merchandise exports, as a share of total world merchandise exports, stood at 17% in 2006, from 10% around 10 years ago. Interestingly, in 2006, more than 46% of developing country merchandise exports were bound for other developing countries, UNCTAD says. The share of inter-regional trade in total South-South trade also showed an increasing trend and has reached 18% in 2005.