The Hindu : Nepal, Cambodian membership of WTO approved

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 13, 2003

Business

Business

Nepal, Cambodian membership of WTO approved

The Cancun ministerial conference on Thursday approved the applications of Cambodia and Nepal to join the WTO. The two countries will formally become members of the WTO a month after their parliaments ratify the terms of WTO membership. The WTO membership will then rise to 148. Nepal and Cambodia are the first Least Developed Countries to join the WTO since the organisation replaced the old GATT in 1995.

The process has not been without either controversy or difficulty. In July, Cham Prasidh, Cambodia's Minister for Trade, used strong language at the WTO in Geneva to express its unhappiness about the unequal accession process. "Joining the WTO is supposed to be path to the Garden of Eden, but Cambodia has found that it is a jungle path full of land mines, guerrilla warfare, tigers and piranhas".

The voluntary group OXFAM has criticised the Cambodia accession process for the difficult terms and conditions imposed on the country.

It has pointed out that Cambodia has agreed to implement the TRIPS agreement by 2007, although as an LDC it has, according to the 2001 Doha Declaration, the freedom until 2016 not to introduce product patents on drugs.

The public criticism of the accession process forced a WTO official to state in a speech on Thursday that Cambodia did have access to the `benefits' of the Doha Declaration.

CII, EU and investment

The controversy about whether or not the Confederation of Indian Industry has endorsed the European Union case for a WTO agreement on investment does not go away. On September 11, an EU spokesperson came armed to a press briefing with photocopies of a statement CII had signed with a couple of European business groups on the agenda for the Cancun conference. That statement which began with `a meaningful investment agreement can be a tool to foster foreign direct investment...' seemed to contradict CII's denial on September 11.

Later in the day, the CII came out with a long-winded explanation that what it had signed on to was consistent with the 2001 Doha ministerial declaration on investment and that it had inserted on safeguards (`there are genuine concerns about the fall-out of an agreement...'). That is correct, but it was obvious that the CII by agreeing to a statement that could be interpreted either way had given a convenient handle to Pascal Lamy to claim that Indian business had a different perspective from the Government of India on investment.

The CII has been saved further embarrassment by not signing another statement drafted at Cancun by European business groups calling for negotiations on investment and the three other Singapore issues.

C. Rammanohar Reddy

in Cancun

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