Problem and Justification

The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ushered in a new rule-based multilateral trading system along with a supervisory body: the World Trade Organisation. This also included a new dispute settlement system with binding rules.  Importantly new agreements on ‘trade-related’ issues like intellectual property, investment and the texts inserted in agreements on antidumping & safeguard issues, agriculture and textiles & clothing revealed the new dimensions of the new world trading system. Also interesting is the legitimacy--that the conclusion of the Uruguay Round talks provided--to discussions for exploring linkages between trade and environment. Thus, the new WTO became a body where a variety of interest groups could push their concerns on non-trade issues onto its platform.

Negotiations during the Uruguay Round exhibited the dynamic nature of formation of groups among countries. It is indeed interesting to observe how formation of informal groups during and after the Uruguay Round have been getting more issue-based.

For developing countries, implementation of the Uruguay Round package has meant embarking on domestic reforms in a big way. Governments and political parties have had no other alternative but to adjust their political ideologies and manifestoes to accommodate the required reforms. New institutions have been created or the existing ones are changing their way of functioning. The major task before the entities involved in this process has of course been to retain the domestic political premium by portraying this change to be of little variance from original positions.

At another level, countries have also understood the imperatives of reaching out to the common man on the reform process at large. One of the ways to achieve this is to show how benefits flowing from trade can not only impact real incomes positively but also throw up a number of other opportunities, something impossible to expect in a closed economy. This has become all the more challenging for labour surplus economies such as South Asian countries.

The challenges emanating from the above-stated situations called for innovation and at the same time demanded that their responses be GATT/WTO-compatible. Furthermore, satisfying legitimate demands of domestic constituencies has given bodies representing the interests of these constituencies a chance to express their views on trade issues.

One needs to acknowledge that even though the level of participation of such interest groups including civil society is seen to vary across countries, it has finally come to stay, especially so in the context of discussions on the WTO platform. Governments in the North have already started taking their civil society more seriously and are seeking their help to provide them with the necessary negotiating inputs.

It would be interesting to note in this context that 12 Governments from developing as well as developed countries included civil society representatives in their official delegations that participated in the Seattle Ministerial Conference of the WTO. The developing countries included Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya, while the rich included all the Nordic countries and UK, the Netherlands etc. One also witnessed at this Conference how civil society is divided over the issue of linking trade with environment and labour standards and more so on deciding whether WTO, which is a sanctions-based body, is the correct platform to discuss the same.

The discussions at the Seattle Ministerial Conference once again proved that developed countries are in no mood to listen to legitimate concerns of developing nations on issues pertaining to ‘implementation’ of existing agreements especially ones dealing with textiles & clothing, agriculture, sanitary & phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, anti-dumping etc. unless they are packaged together with a set of new demands that are being tabled by developed countries in the area of investment, competition and e-commerce. In fact the results of the Seattle Ministerial Conference have raised doubts about the effectiveness of discussions that would take place on items like agriculture and services as per the “built-in agenda” of the WTO.

The discussions above are very much relevant to South Asian countries for the following reasons:  

• Major items comprising the export basket of countries in this region are labour intensive.

• Excluding Sri Lanka, the other WTO-members of this region (viz. Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan) have started their trade reforms process with events taking place on the WTO platform.

• While on the one hand there is a push to link trade with labour standards and with environmental standards, there are apprehensions that such measures will have protectionist designs.

• Most of the countries in this region have a civil society working on trade and development issues. These are at various stages of development.

• Countries under consideration enjoy a comparative advantage in exports of textiles and clothing, agricultural products and skilled human resource, which makes them concerned about the impact of the Seattle Ministerial Conference on the forthcoming discussions on items in the “built-in agenda”.

It would therefore be interesting to find out important facets of these issues (viz. agriculture, textiles & clothing, services, investment, competition etc.), research on which would help the civil society groups of the region to understand and comprehend them in a better way.

To achieve this one needs to decide whether research on these identified facets needs to be carried out immediately or can be delayed with the proviso that more rigorous research be carried out in future. More so one also has to explore whether the research activity can be carried out independently by research institutions, civil society groups or through partnerships of both entities. Last but not the least it is necessary to decide whether study on a particular facet should be sector-specific or not. 

These goals were achieved at a Civil Society Conference: “Trade Agenda for the Next Millennium: Civil Society’s Perspective” held at Kathmandu, Nepal on November 16-17, 1999. The two day conference organised by CUTS and SAWTEE (South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment) was divided into five plenary sessions, each concentrating on a set of trade-related issues. At the end of this Conference participants were able to arrive at a research agenda on the basis of the presentations made on various issues at this event. The conference attracted diverse participation from representatives of research institutions, civil society groups etc. 

This project would be centred on conducting research on a subset of issues, by expanding the existing network to include academic organisations, research institutions, civil society groups and individual researchers that would like to be a part of this process. Active participation of each of these players would not only help in improving the quality of the end product, but would also increase the outreach of the product. The analysis would be carried out on the basis of a broad framework.

The following are the common threads that would run through the research:

·        Research would be carried out with the objective of providing upward and downward linkages to civil society groups on critical issues concerning trade and sustainable development.

·        Analyses would provide guidelines for the civil society groups to better understand and comprehend the effects of multilateral trade agreements on South Asian countries.

·        The study would provide a future direction about debates among the researchers and civil society groups on each of the issues.  

General Objectives

The project proposes over a span of three years to:

• Launch a programme that will undertake comprehensive analyses of trade and development issues, which are of major concerns for South Asian countries. 

• Develop a facility that would provide upward and downward linkages between research institutions, individual researchers and the civil society groups in South Asia for better understanding and comprehension of multilateral trade agreements.

• Create an information database on the effects of multilateral trade agreements on specific sectors of interest to South Asian countries.  

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Project Objectives

The project proposes to produce research reports/discussion papers and briefing papers on selected items listed for research under the following broad heads:

1.      Political economy of trade and development

2.      Special and Differential Treatments

3.      Textiles and Clothing

4.      Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers

5.      Agriculture and Food Security

6.      Intellectual Property Rights

7.      Services

8.      Investment

9.      Competition

Another important production objective is to conduct conferences (two in a year) to discuss the work-in-progress and results of the research done. This consultation exercise will also help the project leaders to check the validity of the same given the objectives of the project before it is disseminated to a larger audience.  

Project Advisory Committee

This Committee is expected to:

1.      Guide the research on various facets associated with issues that have been grouped for research;

2.     Advise the Network on how issues can be demystified for a better understanding by ordinary people; and

3.      Suggest different strategies to expand the network.  

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