ADDRESSING THE World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong yesterday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade K.D. Knight rejected proposals for developing countries to reduce their import tariffs.
Referencing the Uruguay Round of 1986-1994 where developed countries cut their tariffs from 40 to six per cent, Mr. Knight argued that greater flexibility was needed for developing countries to liberalise.
"It is now being proposed that a significant number of developing countries, including CARICOM members, reduce their average tariffs by 60 per cent and more in one huge leap, but this is not acceptable," he said.
CRUCIAL ISSUES
Development issues, said Mr. Knight, should take centre stage in negotiations.
Without this, he said, the Doha Round of trade negotiations which began in November 2001 and was intended to boost economic growth of developing countries to help them participate in international trade, would prove unsuccessful.
"... Even while the projected gains for a large number of developing countries appear to be diminishing, the demands being made on them by negotiating partners appear to be going in the opposite direction," said Mr. Knight who is also spokesperson for the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of countries on non-agricultural market access negotiations.
Doha's progress thus far was of great concern to CARICOM and vulnerable economies, he added. The development agenda, he said, needed to include five proposals for developing countries: the promotion of productive sectors through trade; sustained development of the commodity sector; building supply capacity; competitiveness and increasing the effective market access for developing countries' exports.
