Samoa praised in Bali

Samoa’s decision to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been praised during the opening session of the 9th WTO Ministerial Meeting in Bali Indonesia.

The praise came from the WTO’s Director General, Roberto Azevêdo before Ministers and hundreds of delegates from the organisation’s 159 members attending the meeting at the Bali Conference Centre.

The Ministerial conference, held every two years, is the topmost decision-making body of the WTO. It brings together all members of the WTO to discuss and approve decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements

Mr. Azevêdo welcomed Samoa to its first Ministerial meeting as a member country, after becoming the 5th least developed country to join the organisation since 1995.

He congratulated the other new members including Vanuatu from the Pacific.

The acknowledgement last night would have brought a smile to the face of the Deputy Prime Minister, Fonotoe Pierre Lauofo who was present during the opening session.

Fonotoe has been instrumental in Samoa’s accession to the world’s leading body that deals with global rules of trade between nations.

Accompanied in Bali by the Associate Minister of Commerce, Industry and Labour as well as Trade Negotiations, So’oalo Mene, Fonotoe believes Samoa’s WTO membership is a milestone with the country’s economy standing to benefit a great deal.

But the road ahead is fraught with uncertainties, Mr. Azevêdo admitted yesterday.

He urged all WTO members to stand united to reach a deal in Bali.

“A deal on trade facilitation will cut the costs of trading on a global scale by removing onerous red tape at the border through a range of simple and high-impact measures for all 159 WTO Members,” he said.

“Currently, up to seven per cent of the value of global trade is lost in inefficiencies at the border.”

“In addition, outcomes on agriculture, covering food security issues, export subsidies and improvements to the tariff rate quota system, as well as elements benefitting Least Developed Countries, form a critical part of the Bali package and specifically respond to the Doha Round’s development dimension.”

The Director General said a successful outcome in Bali will benefit everyone and will give a great boost to the multilateral system.

The Chairman of the meeting and Indonesia’s Minister of Trade, Gita Wirjawan is optimistic.

“We’re so close to the finish line that I think there’s hope that in the next couple of days, we can sit down together with the key countries that hold different views about a particular topic or topics,” he said.

“We’re sensitive to nation’s aspirations to serve their national and sovereign interests but I think there can be a bridge between that interest with multilateral interest,” he added.

Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appealed to leaders of the world’s bigger economies to open their markets to support the development of the poorer countries.

The President said giving the least developed countries an opportunity to trade gives them an opportunity to develop.

“Despite our progress, 1.2 billion people continue to live in extreme poverty,” the president said.

He said it was imperative to help the weak grow strong because this would bring benefits, contributing to regional and global stability.

Despite significant progress made over the past few months, negotiators from the members of the global trade governing body in Geneva last week failed to agree on texts to be rubber stamped at the ministerial meeting after the meeting reached an impasse.

A few members still held opposing views regarding the public stockholding proposal, particularly the duration of the interim solution for agriculture subsidies and some parts of the trade facilitation draft rule.

Some progress was made by least-developed countries (LDCs) and related key stakeholders at the end of last week as they resolved issues on the trade facilitation text, regarding assistance from developed countries to assist the cross-border flow of goods.

The main stumbling block in the G33 proposal talks now lies in the duration of the interim arrangement, which prohibits developing nations from disputes when breaching the subsidy limit of 10 per cent of their national farm output.

For some members, the time frame should be open-ended before a revision to the WTO agriculture agreement, which justifies an increase of the subsidy limit to the current level, is completed.

In a communiqué released by the G33 agriculture producing group on Monday, the 46 members called for immediate engagement to jump-start work toward a permanent solution after the Bali meeting to conclude it during the time frame of the interim solution.

Negotiators pointed out that India could change the landscape of negotiations, with a nod to a four-year subsidized food policy offer expected.

But Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma stood firm, vowing that India would offer “no compromise” on its domestic policy to subsidize food for its poor population, Reuters reported.

WTO director general Roberto Azevêdo said that Bali should not become a “negotiating conference” and what remains to be negotiated is not something that could be easily managed by the ministers in Bali despite existence of “landing zones” for some pending issues.

WTO information and external relations chief Keith Rockwell said that despite the pessimism that emerged following the failure to complete the texts last week, the meeting in Bali might still generate a balanced outcome with the much needed political will.

“The issues that remain are few. They are very easily defined. They are not too technical and they are easily resolvable with sufficient political will and flexibility,” Rockwell told a press briefing in Nusa Dua, Bali.

“We now have the political leaders here and this obviously makes for a different environment. How that will play out we don’t know, we will just have to wait and see.”

With reporting from Linda Yulisman, The Jakarta Post