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Answer: Doha Development Round is a latest multi lateral trade negotiation round taking place
within the World Trade Organization (WTO), which arranges the negotiations among and
different member countries on a variety of subjects and other works. The negotiations include
those on agriculture and services. Its objective is to liberalization of trade in goods and services
among the WTO members (153), which will enhance and pave the way of world trading. The
Doha Round was formed at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in December 2001.
Subsequent ministerial meetings took place in Cancun, Mexico (2003), and Hong Kong (2005).
Related negotiations took place in Geneva, Switzerland (2004, 2006, and 2008); Paris, France
(2005); and Postdam, Germany (2007).

Why Doha Development Round

The conference came after an unsuccessful WTO ministerial conference in Seattle in 1999,
where anti-globalization protestors disrupted the talks. There was thus a clear need to show unity
and dynamism in the world trading system. Launched against the background of growing
skepticism on the merits of that system for developing countries, the round was presented from
the beginning as a development oriented round. It was named the ³Doha Development Agenda´
(DDA) in reference to these objectives. Fulfilling the hopes of developing countries in a manner
acceptable to industrialized countries has been a constant theme in the round.

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Answer:

Important Features of Doha Round

The negotiations have been characterized by persistent differences between the United States, the
European Union, and developing countries on major issues, such as agriculture, industrial tariffs
and non-tariff barriers, services, and trade remedies. Depending on the outcome, some U.S.
industries may gain access to foreign markets, and others may see increased competition from
imports. Likewise, some U.S. workers may be helped through increased access to foreign
markets, but others may be hurt by import competition.
Doha Round talks are overseen by the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), whose chair is the
WTO¶s director-general, currently Pascal Lamy. The negotiations are being held in five working
groups and in other existing bodies of the WTO. Selected topics under negotiation are discussed
below in five groups: market access, development issues, WTO rules, trade facilitation and other
issues.

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  Agriculture has become the linchpin in the Doha Development Agenda.20 U.S.
goals in the new round were elimination of agricultural export subsidies, easing of tariffs and
quotas, and reductions in trade-distorting domestic support. The Doha Ministerial Declaration
included language on all of these three pillars of agricultural support.

Mode IV services negotiation is one of the issues of Doha Development Round. Mode
IV relates to the temporary movement of business persons to another country in order to perform
a service on-site.

Non Agriculture Market Access (NAMA): NAMA is one of the issues of Doha Development
Round. It is the negotiation to reduce or eliminate tariffs on industrial and primary product with
a focus on tariff peaks, high tariffs, and tariff escalation.

 

Three development issues are most noteworthy. One pertains to compulsory licensing of
medicines and patent protection. A second deals with a review of provisions giving special and
differential treatment to developing countries. A third addresses problems that developing
countries were having in implementing current trade obligations.
   
 Ô
 A major topic at the Doha Ministerial regarded the WTO
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).29 The issue
involves the balance of interests between the pharmaceutical companies in developed countries
that held patents on medicines and the public health needs in developing countries.
  
     In the Doha Ministerial Declaration, the trade
ministers reaffirmed special and differential (S&D) treatment for developing countries and
agreed that all S&D treatment provisions. In the Declaration, the trade ministers endorsed the
work program on S&D treatment presented in another Doha document, m
 

  
  
(Implementation Decision).
  
Developing countries claim that they have had problems with the implementation of the
agreements reached in the earlier Uruguay Round because of limited capacity or lack of technical
assistance. They also claim that they have not realized certain benefits that they expected from
the Round, such as increased access for their textiles and apparel in developed-country markets.
They seek a clarification of language relating to their interests in existing agreements

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Trade facilitation was the issue of first WTO conference held in 1996, which was unresolved
subsequently in 2001, 2003 ministerial. In 2004 compromise was reached framework agreement
and negotiations held on trade facilitation aiming to improve the efficiency of international trade
by harmonizing and streamlining customs procedures such as duplicative documentation
requirements, customs processing delays, and nontransparent or unequally enforced importation
rules and requirements.

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The Doha Round negotiations included Antidumping (AD) and Subsidies and Countervailing
Measures (ASCM). The Doha Ministerial Declaration also calls for clarifying and improving
disciplines on fisheries subsidies. At Doha, trade ministers continued to call for a review of
dispute rules. The Ministerial Declaration directed that negotiations be held on improvements
and clarifications of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU).
The Ministerial Declaration included several provisions on trade and environment. Among the
provisions, the trade ministers agreed to the following: (1) negotiations on the relationship
between existing WTO rules and trade obligations in multilateral environmental agreements
(MEAs); (2) procedures for the exchange of information between MEA Secretariats and WTO
committees, and the criteria for granting observer status; and (3) the reduction or elimination of
trade barriers to environmental goods and services.
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Answer:
The most recent round of negotiations, 23±29 July 2008, broke down after failing to reach a
compromise on agricultural import rules. In particular, there was insoluble disagreement between
India and the United States over the special safeguard mechanism (SSM), a measure designed to
protect poor farmers by allowing countries to impose a special tariff on certain agricultural goods
in the event of an import surge or price fall. Another issue was U.S subsidies on cotton.

Pascal Lamy said, "Members have simply not been able to bridge their differences. The
European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson characterized the collapse as a
"collective failure".

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Some member countries have urged for negotiations of DDR to start again. Brazil and Pascal
Lamy have led this process. Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, called several countries
leaders to urge them to renew negotiations. Lamy visited India to discuss possible solutions to
the impasse. A mini-ministerial meeting held in India on September 3 and 4 pledged to complete
the round by the end of 2010. The declaration at the end of the G20 summit of world leaders in
London in 2009 included a pledge to complete the Doha round. Lamy hopes that the drop in
world trade of 12% in 2009, quoted as the largest annual drop since the Second World War,
could be countered by successful conclusion of the Doha round.

At the 2011 annual conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos British Prime Minister
David Cameron called for the Doha talks to conclude by the end of the year, saying that "We've
been at this Doha round for far too long. It's frankly ridiculous that it has taken 10 years to do
this deal.