Qatar Deputy Prime Minister: Failure of Doha Round Costs the Global Economy a USD 170 Billion Loss Annually

Doha, April 22 (QNA) - HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud said the industrialized nations' adherence to the protectionist procedures and their insistence on demanding developing countries to cut custom tariffs on their industrial commodities has caused the global economy to lose at least USD170 billion per year which would have been the expected increase in the volume of trade exchange in the event that the Doha agreement has been signed. Addressing the opening session of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Doha Development Agenda (DDA), HE Al Mahmoud said the Doha Development Round was aimed to support the global economy and to help developing countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to integrate into a balanced and just global economy in which disappears the barriers and customs restrictions and protectionist measures imposed by the major industrialized countries to protect their products and domestic markets. In contrast, he added, the developing countries are working to cut taxes and custom tariffs on goods imported from industrialized nations to increases the volume of trade between world countries. He explained that the international trade agenda initiative, launched by the International Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, aims to reach a new global rules for trade and investment that leads the World Trade Organization to beyond the Doha Round. HE Al Mahmoud stressed that this initiative was a significant event worth the mobilization of efforts not only to revive the round, which was launched in 2001, but even to enable the WTO achieve its objectives and create a balanced and fair global economy which provides everyone with equal opportunities in trade, investment and sustainable development. He said that the establishment of a balanced, fair and multilateral global economy must take into account the needs, benefits and common interests of all its parties, indicating that it is no longer acceptable to ask developing countries to cancel or reduce tariffs and open their markets to the products of the industrialized nations while the industrialized countries still impose protectionist restrictions hampering the entry of the products of those states to their markets. HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs stressed the need to give all WTO member states the right to determine their needs, priorities and the role played by international trade in their lives. Topics tabled on the agenda earn the summit strategic dimensions because they deal with the future of global trade and answer important questions about the business world needs from trade and from WTO and the way that should be taken towards a feasible trade in the 21st century, HE Al Mahmoud said. He hoped that the summit's agenda would be an approach and base for the return of the negotiations to the right track, pointing out that the most important and main objective of the WTO since its establishment in 1995, was to achieve real and balanced development for all member states through global trade liberalization. While pointing out that this liberalization is a means and not an end, Al Mahmoud explained that everyone hopes that the world would enjoy a real economic development to be reflected on all world countries, to achieve prosperity and welfare to their people and bring to the developing countries and the LDCs a real harmony with in the global economy to enable them create new jobs opportunities and benefit from its economic resources economic in the best way. He pointed out that the organization has been able since its inception to achieve significant progress in the resolution of commercial disputes between its member states, but could not yet keep pace with the growing global economic growth, and to attract new important and influential parties in its membership. That makes it imperative for the organization and those in charge of it to review its laws, regulations and its executive management structures with the logic and spirit of the twenty-first century and not the previous century. HE Al Mahmoud said the current reality after the elapse of 18 years since the establishment of the WTO, indicates that the economic conditions in the developing countries and the LDCs had not improved and the international trade had not created new jobs, noting that the big countries also faced a global financial crisis in 2008 that almost caused them to collapse. Concluding, he said this confirms that the values and principles of the organization, despite their noble purposes has lacked the flexible rules that are capable of dealing with a globalized economy that grows and evolves with astonishing speed, expressing his appreciation for the initiative of International Chamber of Commerce and Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry calling for the revival of the Doha Round negotiations, launched from Doha for nearly twelve years.(QNA)