A few days ago trade ministers agreed to meet soon at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and deliberate on the contentious issues arising from the Doha Round initiated first in year 2001.As expected, the announcement sparked yet another wrangle that, to the chagrin of developing countries, saw the last talks held in year 2005 collapse. Whereas most of the developing countries find it expedient for the meeting to prioritize the discussions on agriculture and industries most developed countries and a few developing ones would rather have the discussion limited on services such as banking, telecom etc. Meanwhile two developments have coincided with the above announcement. The first of the developments is that one of the developing countries, Kenya, has been marred by a political unrest that seems to destructively encroach on its economy. Since the announcement of the disputed presidential results that saw President Kibaki declared winner by the chairman of the electoral commission of Kenya (ECK) Samuel Kivuitu, more than 1000 lives have been lost and more than 350,000 people rendered homeless by the skirmishes; the second one is that 3 African cotton-producing countries have called on the EU to cut subsidies as part of enhancing free global trade. Apparently these African countries want to cut that amount by about 82 percent. The World Trade Organization (WTO) with its multilateral approach to trade has a role to play if not a hand in the two cases above. BBC economics editor, Evan Davis, asserts that “in many respects… (WTO) has been better at keeping the peace than the UN…†This, he argues, it has achieved by acting as a global referee and deliberating on trade disputes.†And Davis is not yet finished, he also notes that the existence of the organization has disciplined nations, stopped selfish protectionism, and ‘beggar-thy-neighbour trade policies.’ Says he: “It’s the only venue in the world where Costa Rica can take on the US and, win.†But don’t get this worthy economist wrong, just like you and I, he also attaches so much misgivings on the above statements. Unfortunately to the WTO, the current impasse in Kenya that is alarmingly spilling out of its political confines to the economic spheres and lamentations of the 3 African states begs for nothing short of its role as stipulated above-play efficiently its duel role of a peacekeeper and also a defender of the weak. Even if the current team of mediators in Kenya, headed by the former UN secretary general were to succeed in bringing about a political settlement, I am afraid the resultant solution would be far from restoring a viable investment climate and mending the damage already witnessed on the various sectors of the economy like tourism, and the transport sectors. The civil unrest that has befallen Kenya is neither exceptional nor the worst in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently civil violence is still rife in countries such as Somalia, Congo, and Darfur region. Therefore, for a continent that has grown used to unending conflicts, the Kenyan one was simply meant to arouse all global democratic institutions like the WTO to truly act democratically. Africa has lost a lot fiscally through repeated conflicts; unfortunately it is the UN which has always been called upon to restore peace but not the WTO to prevent eruption of any more violence. In a nutshell, the Doha talks collapsed because the developed countries more so the US and some EU member countries were not that prepared to allow the developing countries to make in-roads into their markets that are especially favorable for Africa’s agricultural and manufactured products. This was the case despite the fact that the discussions were conducted under a ‘democratic’ venue that permitted free and fair competition. Even though all the 149 member countries have equal veto rights, the US and the EU sets the agenda and controls the decision-making process. Small wonder when the 3 African cotton-producing countries came up with their demands, Brussels said its hands were tied. World Banks statistical data states that removal of the various distortions imposed by developed countries could deliver gains to developing countries of about $85 billion in 2015or more than four times the development assistance currently for investment climate improvements. This would actually go a long way in finding the key to unlocking the deadlock to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The World Bank, in addition, notes that this would be instrumental in poverty reduction because agricultural and labor intensive goods usually face import tariffs twice as high as those other products. Not to mention the clear fact that this would considerably reduce the rate at which violence erupts in Africa given its(violence) economical angle. As well captured by Davis, indecision is the major setback of, ironically, a democratic organization as the WTO which brought into sharp focus not only the credibility of WTO but also that of multilateralism as form trade conducted under the ambit of WTO.The BBC bigwig proposes three steps to be taken to put WTO in order, these are: that all political will need to remain well-disposed to the WTO, among politicians and publics of the big players; that WTO should settle disputes efficiently; and that the WTO try to foster an expanded role in managing and monitoring the bilateral trade being signed especially by the US to realize its unilalateralism goal. Ultimately, it does not make sense for the developed countries to insist on concentrating on discussing services in the upcoming Doha talks when it’s obvious for example that service industries in OECD countries already benefit from protection equivalent to tariffs of 10 to 30 percent. And in the same tune Brussels need not to be so hard on the 3 African countries when it is clear that in some OECD countries like Spain and Greece cotton farmers get subsidies worth 275 million euros ($ 402 million) per year. On the Kenyan situation it is high time the international community started talking of economic settlement as a supplement of a political solution that would see countries such as the US walk the talk and ease their protectionist policies. Kenya and many other African countries desperately needs that settlement get out of its current economic limbo. DOMINIC OMONDI Telephone number 0726508384 Email:dommyzomosh@yahoo.com
that's a great post thanks very much for sharing. we hope that the new Kenyan government will see to some of these issues and to help bring Kenya to normal. Kenya was once the most peaceful on that part of the continent and we hope Kenya will reclaim its lost glory. thanks