It’s a battle over bananas as WTO talks falter

IT IS a battle over bananas at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Switzerland – with director general Pascal Lamy pushing to tie up the Doha Round deal. According to information released to FTW by the southern African Trade Law Centre (tralac), a tentative breakthrough in the two areas of agriculture and industrial goods seemed close, but the talks then became clouded by new disputes between developing countries – led by India – and developed countries. India is demanding more flexibility under the so-called ‘special safeguard mechanism’, which would allow developing nations to increase agricultural tariffs to protect domestic farmers in the event of an import surge. And that row over bananas between the European Union (EU), Latin America, and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping is also threatening the delicate quest for a balanced deal, diplomats said. A banana deal would settle one of the world’s oldest trade disputes, and is one of the key elements to be concluded in the WTO’s Doha Round. The sides have been working to clear overlaps of products on the tropical and preferential access lists although agreement will be impossible without a deal on bananas. Lamy, meanwhile, has tabled a new compromise text to push for the Doha deal on global trade talks. According to his spokesman, Keith Rockwell, although convergence was observed in the talks in Geneva, an agreement is still far from being reached – as a series of disputes remain unresolved and could undermine the perceived progress. According to Rockwell, the new text has certain controversial sections in blank. “You should be aware in advance that there will be sections in this text (that) will be blank”, he said. “On issue[s] where there is no convergence now, we are going to leave the issues blank.” Cotton, special safeguard mechanisms, new tariff-free quotas, and specific problems for some individual countries including South Africa and Venezuela were cited as some of the issues remaining on the table.