PNoWB Sets Up Working Group on International Trade

Transcription

1 PNoWB Sets Up Working Group on International Trade Paris, 20 April Parliamentarians from Brazil i and several European countries, meeting on 20 April 2004 with the World Bank director for international trade by video link, have established a Working Group on Trade under the auspices of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB). Jointly organized by the World Bank and PNoWB, the video conference also included representatives from inter-parliamentary organizations and the United Nations. OUTCOME and CONCLUSIONS A successful Doha development round is a key step towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Opening rich-country markets to products from developing countries (such as sugar and cotton) is particularly pertinent to reducing poverty. Parliamentarians can promote progress on international trade negotiations by holding their governments accountable to international commitments, by challenging their governments to make positive steps, and by spurring public debate on trade-related issues (on how trade barriers affect poor people in developing countries, for example). To become more effective, parliamentarians need to exchange ideas and experiences across borders and parliaments, and to connect with relevant multilateral organizations and civil society groups offering research findings and policy options. This is the rationale for setting up a PNoWB Working Group on Trade. The PNoWB Working Group on Trade will become 1) a platform for policy dialogue and information exchanges between parliamentarians and the World Bank (and other relevant groups) on trade issues and 2) an intra-pnowb forum for sharing experiences and policy options as the Doha trade round moves forward. The group will: - bring in different perspectives. It will seek to involve relevant parliamentarians in key countries, including the United States, and it will work with inter-parliamentary organizations and civil society groups. - follow the international trade agenda and identify in advance relevant councils and international trade meetings. It will seek opportunities to participate actively, and to influence agendas and the outcomes of negotiations. The group will coordinate efforts globally, providing concise briefs on negotiations and suggesting ways to engage governments and hold them accountable. Communications will be mainly by phone and , but meetings will also take place, in person or by video link. - identify two or three key objectives and focus on them. Over-stretching is a risk. Issue focuses could, for example, be on sugar and cotton. - be co-chaired by a member of parliament from the North and a member of parliament from the South. After the meeting, Hugh Bayley, MP, United Kingdom, agreed to represent parliamentarians from developed countries. Paul Rübig, Austrian Member of European Parliament, agreed to play a leading role in the 25- nation parliament provided he is re-elected. PNoWB is looking for a champion from a developing country. 1

2 Parliamentary Network on the World Bank An independent association based in Paris and financed by bilateral donor countries, PNoWB mobilizes parliamentarians in the fight against global poverty, promotes transparency and accountability in international development, and offers a platform for policy dialogue between the World Bank and parliamentarians. (Website: ) World Bank Owned and governed by 184 countries, the World Bank works with developing countries to reduce poverty and spur economic and social development. The Bank has estimated further trade liberalization, particularly for typical products from development countries, could help an extra 144 million people escape poverty by The organization is engaging parliamentarians as change agents who can push forward the Doha development round (Website: ) MINUTES from the 20 April 2004 VIDEOCONFERENCE Ivar Slengesol, Communications Associate, Development Policy Dialogue team, World Bank (moderator, speaking from Brussels) Introduced speakers and reminded participants of the objectives of the meeting. The World Bank s Development Policy Dialogue Team helps facilitate relations between the organization, and parliamentarians and parliamentary organizations. Uri Dadush, International Trade Director, World Bank (in Brussels) The World Bank is deeply committed to the anti-poverty potential for trade, and is looking for ways to help put the Doha initiative back on track. The Bank works on trade issues at the global level in advocating a development round, and also works on trade issues at the regional and country levels. Although regional level initiatives can be of benefit they are no substitute for global multilateral agreements. Regional agreements can be one-sided, especially where there is one dominant country in a region. The development round could lead to large gains. With complete liberalization in goods, by 2015 the gains could be $500 billion for developing countries and $300 billion for developed countries, and would bring 300 million people out of poverty. The largest gains would be through liberalization of trade in agricultural products. Potential gains from the liberalization of services such as telecommunications, power, transportation, and finance are harder to quantify, but the speculative guess is that the gains could be even greater. Analysis by Alan Winters, new director of research at the Bank, suggests that the gains from liberalizing services could be as much as 3 percent of jobs in developed countries, equal to or greater than the gains from liberalization of goods. There are also substantial gains to be made from the liberalization of the movement of people. The emphasis at present for getting the Doha round going again should be on trade liberalization, with less emphasis on behind-border regulations. While there should be preferences to poorer countries, they also need to abide by WTO disciplines. Of course, trade is just part of a development strategy, and the basics of a good investment climate are required too. 2

3 Jonathan Murphy, PNoWB global task manager for the Parliamentarians Implementation Watch for the MDGs (London) PNoWB has introduced the Parliamentarians Implementation Watch, which partly focuses on promoting and monitoring progress the Doha development round. These include the publication of two trade briefs, one in conjunction with the ICTSD pre- Cancun, and one post-cancun. PNoWB Chair Bert Koenders has asked all parliamentarians in the network to sponsor debates in their national parliaments on trade, particularly to air different perspectives and provide each country s negotiators with a good picture of the different public perspectives on trade. As an example, the British House of Commons International Development Committee held hearings and produced reports on trade and development issues both before and after Cancun. PNoWB is keenly aware of the dangers to poor countries of regional and bilateral trade agreements in which they will have much less power to ensure a fair agreement than a true multilateral agreement. PNoWB is excited about the potential for a PNoWB trade working group and there is a significant potential for synergy with the Parliamentarians Implementation Watch. Romeu Tuma, Senator for São Paulo state, Brazil (Brasilia) Tax reforms are underway in Brazil to foster the import of industrial goods that will allow the retooling of the manufacturing sector. The G20 group can bring developing countries into markets. Rich countries must tear down trade barriers. Social considerations must be made. Brazil needs more investors. Are the ways in which the World Bank can help with trade facilitation and behind-the-border issues? We need our asphalt roads upgraded as well as our ports. International trade is an extremely important issue and Brazil welcomes the creation of an international trade group. Elly Plooij van Gorsel, Dutch member, European Parliament (Strasbourg) A multilateral approach is needed, and trade is better than aid. It is also crucial that legal framework be adequately established in developing countries for investment. Member of an informal trade group in the European Parliament. Paul Rübig, Austrian member, European Parliament (Strasbourg) Parliamentarians should play a bigger role in trade issues. Greater focus on Singapore issues and on small business is needed. Partnership between small and medium size enterprises in developed and underdeveloped countries is important. More open trade is a win-win for developing and developed countries. 3

4 Hugh Bayley, MP, United Kingdom (Brussels) Agree with Uri Dadush on the need to get behind the Doha round and ensure that further momentum is not lost. The issue cannot stay on the backburner for ever. Progress on trade will depend on real determination in the EU, the US, G20 and G90. There is only a narrow window of opportunity for progress, basically between now and July. In particular, there must be progress on agriculture. Agricultural subsidies must be reduced with clearly set timetable. Singapore issues should not be resurrected at present, as there is no capacity to negotiate. Investment and competition should be dropped altogether as issues. Paul Cook, director, economics and security committee, NATO Parliamentary Assembly (Brussels) Drawing in US legislators is key. NATO Parliamentary Assembly has an advantage over some other parliamentary organizations in that it involves a significant number of US congressmen and senators. Eveline Herfkens, UN Secretary General s Executive Coordinator of the Millennium Development Goals (New York, by phone) Agree completely with Hugh Bayley that it is critical to get the Doha round back on track, and that there is nothing to be gained by getting into the Singapore issues. Many developing countries just do not have the resources to properly negotiate on issues like competition and investment and may not benefit from a deal in those areas. Governments have made commitments on the Doha development round goals and trade ministers can be held accountable by parliaments. Poor people are dependent on agriculture. The European Union should not make too much of an issue of cotton where there is a certain amount of hypocrisy on the part of European leaders; trade with cotton affects Europe very little and it is easy to be magnanimous on this issue. More pertinent in Europe is dealing with sugar subsidies. Europe should stop pushing regional deals with sub-saharan Africa, and instead focus on getting results in multilateral agreements. A final deadline should be set for negotiations on agricultural subsidies. One should not depend entirely on the good will of the European public towards trade with developing countries but should focus as well on the high cost to the European consumer of subsidies. Patrick Messerlen, OECD, has done valuable research on this, which is also included in a speech by Herfkens that should be available on the internet. In politics, timing is everything. PNoWB should look at international meeting agendas and advice its members on how to challenge their governments. Disseminating trade research actually helps. A round table discussion followed: 4

5 Uri Dadush noted there seemed to be a fair amount of agreement on the importance of opening rich-country markets to products from developing countries. We should think about the how. It is clear that involving parliamentarians brings value. Sharing ideas across parliaments is key. In particular, parliamentarians can become champions of trade policy at the national level (which the Bank cannot). Agriculture is the most important issue and it is often the agriculture ministers who are key rather than the trade ministers. The parliamentarians working group on trade should identify two or three key objectives and focus on them. Elly Plooij van Gorsel said parliamentarians should be more involved in international trade issues. NGOs have a strong voice, but they are unelected. Monica Frassoni, Italian member, European parliament, and PNoWB board member (Brussels), welcomed the initiative of the Working Group to facilitate debate across different parliamentarian groups, multilateral organizations and civil society groups. She noted that she would be happy to play a key role in setting up this trade working group after the European elections, assuming she is reelected. It is important that different perspectives be represented on the WTO issues. However given the forthcoming European elections both she and probably many of the other MEPs will be busy campaigning for the next few months. Hugh Bayley noted democracies move slower than individual MPs. Need to share information about the trade debates in various countries. What seems great in one country, may not work in another. A working group can help parliamentarians share ideas and experiences across borders. Paul Cook noted there would be synergies between the work of a PNoWB working group and that of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Eveline Herfkens stressed concrete actions are needed. A parliamentary organization is only as relevant as its weakest national chapter. PNoWB should get dates for relevant councils and international trade meeting. Find out what the issues are and coordinate globally. Issue focus could be on sugar and cotton. Working group could suggest parliamentarians ask their governments question, such as what are the products for which the government would lower tariffs? PARTICIPANTS Brasilia (facilitated by Felix Fernando, World Bank Brasilia office): World Bank Brasilia office Romeu Tuma, Senator for São Paulo state, Brazil 5

6 Strasbourg (facilitated by Haleh Bridi and Asuka Yamashina, World Bank Brussels office, with European Parliament) Trade Committee members Paul Rübig (Group of the European People's Party Christian Democrats, Austria) Elly Plooij-Van Gorsel, (Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party, Netherlands) Other Committee Monica Frassoni (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Co-president, Belgium) Haleh Bridi, Special Representative to the EU institutions, World Bank Judith Ecker, Trade Committee secretariat Ana Caprile, Development Committee secretariat Brussels (facilitated by World Bank Brussels office staff) World Bank Brussels Office Uri Dadush, International Trade Director, World Bank Hugh Bayley, MP, Member of International Development Select Committee, United Kingdom Paul Cook, Director, Economics and Security Committee, NATO-Parliamentary Assembly Ivar Slengesol, Communications Associate, Development Policy Dialogue Team, World Bank Asuka Yamashina, Consultant, World Bank Washington World Bank headquarters (parliamentary organization participation facilitated by Lisa von Trapp, World Bank Paris office) Jean-Christophe Bas, Manager, Development Policy Dialogue team, World Bank Alicia Phillips Mandaville, National Democratic Institute New York by audio link Eveline Herfkens, UN Secretary General s Executive Coordinator of the Millennium Development Goals This note was prepared by Jonathan Murphy, PNoWB, and Ivar Slengesol, Word Bank. Contact Hugh Bayley, MP, United Kingdom and the PNoWB Working Group on International Trade at secretariat@pnowb.org Jonathan Murphy Task Manager, Parliamentarians' Implementation Watch, PNoWB c/o World Bank, London Office 15th Floor, New Zealand House Haymarket, London SW1Y 4TE jmurphy@worldbank.org 6

7 Ivar Slengesol Communications Associate, Development Policy Dialogue World Bank, Paris office 66 avenue d Iena Paris islengesol@worldbank.org i Parliamentarians from the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Kenya were invited but unable to attend. South Africa and India could not take part because of elections. 7