The Doha Development Agenda

This article provides a highlight of the position of LDCS like Uganda in the Doha Development Agenda. Are the provisions really being applied? The failure of the Cancun-WTO negotiations is perhaps rooted in the failure of the industrialised countries to respect the spirit of the Doha Agenda.
Read on and perhaps make comments through this platform

Least-developed countries in the Doha Developed Agenda
Many developed countries have now significantly decreased or actually scrapped tariffs on imports from least-developed countries (LDCs). Some did this before the May 2001 Third UN Conference on LDCs. Some did it afterwards.

In the Doha declaration, WTO member governments commit themselves to the objective of duty-free, quota-free market access for LDCs’ products and to consider additional measures to improve market access for these exports.

Members also agree to try to ensure that least-developed countries can negotiate WTO membership faster and more easily.

Some technical assistance is targeted specifically for least-developed countries. The Doha Declaration urges WTO member donors to significantly increase their contributions.
In addition, the Sub-Committee for LDCs (a subsidiary body of the WTO Committee on Trade and Development) will design a work program, taking into account the parts of the declaration related to trade that was issued at the UN LDC Conference.

In the Doha Declaration, member governments agree that all special and differential treatment provisions should be reviewed with a view to strengthening them and making them more precise. More specifically, the declaration (together with the Decision on Implementation-Related Issues and Concerns) mandates the Committee on Trade and Development to identify which of those special and differential treatment provisions are mandatory, and to consider the implications of making mandatory those which are currently non-binding.
For more on this and other WTO Articles,

please log on: www.wto.org | print this page