Conclude Doha : It Matters!

Abstract

The Doha Round must be concluded not
 because it will produce dramatic liberalization but because
 it will create greater security of market access. Its
 conclusion would strengthen, symbolically and substantively,
 the WTO s valuable role in restraining protectionism in the
 current downturn. What is on the table would constrain the
 scope for tariff protection in all goods, ban agricultural
 export subsidies in the industrial countries and sharply
 reduce the scope for distorting domestic support - by 70 per
 cent in the EU and 60 per cent in the US. Average farm
 tariffs that exporters face would fall to 12 per cent (from
 14.5 per cent) and the tariffs on exports of manufactures to
 less than 2.5 per cent (from about 3 per cent). There are
 also environmental benefits to be captured, in particular
 disciplining the use of subsidies that encourage
 over-fishing and lowering tariffs on technologies that can
 help mitigate global warming. An agreement to facilitate
 trade by cutting red tape will further expand trade
 opportunities. Greater market access for the least-developed
 countries will result from the "duty free and quota
 free" proposal and their ability to take advantage of
 new opportunities will be enhanced by the Doha-related
 "aid for trade" initiative. Finally, concluding
 Doha would create space for multilateral cooperation on
 critical policy matters that lie outside the Doha Agenda,
 most urgently the trade policy implications of climate
 change mitigation.