Barbados is a miniature player in the context of international trade.
As a founding member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), however, the island and many of its neighbours in the Caribbean Community would have played an important role in the recently concluded and historic world trade agreement.
It was reached last month when 159 WTO trade ministers or their representatives met in Bali, Indonesia for their ninth ministerial meeting, which ended with the first multi-lateral trade agreement in 20 years.
The agreement, which some analysts called “comprehensive”, included plans to make it easier to do business across international borders and improved duty-free access for goods sold by the world’s poorest countries.
Some estimated the deal could add up to US$1 trillion to international trade and increased the ability of developing countries like Barbados to raise farm subsidies.
“For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered. This time the entire membership came together. We have put the ‘world’ back in World Trade Organization,” WTO director general Roberto Azevedo said after the agreement was reached.
Barbados has been a key and persistent voice for the rights of small island developing states and in February 2010 Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Maxine McClean, speaking at the opening of a trade agreements dialogue in Barbados, said it was important for there to be a level playing field in the global trade arena. Without this, she noted, small players like Barbados would be unable to compete.
“We in the Caribbean are painfully aware that there is no level playing field with respect to global trade, and even the rules that are designed to govern such. It is in this context that our countries are forced to bring, at all times, the special and peculiar circumstances that we face as small, open, and vulnerable economies, with very narrow resource bases,” McClean said.
“We must at all times seek to ensure that the international trade rules which the WTO crafts are not detrimental to our trade and economic interests. We have to ensure that we are not marginalized by the seemingly irreversible processes of trade liberalization and globalization.”
The minister also noted that Barbados, like all CARICOM countries, “fully subscribe to the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries”, and more specifically “small vulnerable economies” like those in the region.
A similar view was voiced at the Bali meeting last December 5 by Jamaica’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Arnaldo Brown, who is also African, Caribbean and Pacific States group coordinator on WTO issues.
“It is true that we have consistently allowed success to elude us when advancing the Doha Development Round, but we need not repeat that history here . . ., he said.
“While there are differing views on the consequences of not securing a package here in Bali, everyone recognizes that the consequences for negotiating functions of the WTO will be significant. As developing countries commit to multilateralism and a rule-based trading system, we stand to be the most seriously affected by any setback to the system.
“Bali is a watershed for the WTO. We have within our grasp an agreement and a package that could provide significant impetus for concluding the round and strengthening and enhancing the credibility of the WTO and the multilateral trading system. In keeping with our declared commitment as ministers of the ACP states we will therefore spare no effort to achieve a successful outcome here in Bali,” he added.
While official reaction in Barbados and CARICOM to the world trade agreement has been generally muted, some well-known voices on international trade have been sharing their views on the issue.
These included the Caribbean Council’s managing director, David Jessop. The Caribbean Council provides specialist advice and support to companies, trade associations, governments, public sector organizations, and regional and multilateral organizations.
Jessop said while the Bali agreement “fell far short of the comprehensive trade round envisaged when the Doha Round negotiations were launched in 2001”, it did address some contentious trade liberalization issues.
“Of those aspects touching the Caribbean, potentially the most significant is the agreement on trade facilitation. All WTO members agreed to simplify customs procedures by reducing costs and improving the speed and efficiency of customs clearance,” he noted.
“The agreement, once ratified locally and by two thirds of WTO members, will be legally binding and will have to be implemented. The agreement also involves a related provision for assistance for developing and least developed countries to update their infrastructure, train customs officials, and to cover costs associated with implementing the agreement.”
Jessop added that “beyond the detail, what the meeting in Bali achieved was a sense that there is still life in the WTO process when as recently as six months ago it had seemed that the multilateral trade negotiating process was on life support”.
“That said and despite the new found optimism, what will happen next is not clear. Although there is clearly a desire on the part of WTO members to address other more difficult issues next year, what form the negotiations will take has yet to be decided,” he concluded.
