Re: CUTS Bulletin from UNCTAD XIII Doha: Day 3
CUTS-TradeForum
CUTS International Daily Bulletin
UNCTAD XIII, 21-26 April 2012, Doha, Qatar
Bulletin 3: April 23, 2012
The three spheres of activities – general debate, negotiations, and side events – continued on the third day of UNCTAD XIII at Doha. While the ministers and heads of delegations delivered their statements in the general debate, diplomats got fully engaged into the negotiations to finalise an agreed outcome document.
As reported in CUTS Daily Bulletin 2, UNCTAD member countries have a number of substantial differences regarding the final contents of the outcome document. These differences have been divided into two categories:
- The first category includes what are perceived to be more contentious issues (e.g. continuing with current UNCTAD mandate on work on macroeconomic issues which some developed countries are opposing) which will be negotiated in small groups. They should focus on their core mandate.
- The second category includes the rest of the outstanding differences to be negotiated in the Committee of the Whole.
TWN, Public Citizen and OWINFS event at the CSO Forum titled ‘Safeguarding development and the public interest from investment provisions in trade and investment agreements’ discussed many issues concerning IIAs and BITs.
Main points in the presentations and discussion were:
- The main problems with current BITs and IIAs are: imbalanced rights and obligations of investors, host countries and home countries; imprecise language and broad definitions of investment and investors; investor-state dispute settlement through international arbitration panels which lack transparency, do not prohibit conflict of interest for panelists, are costly, and do not have appeal provisions; and regulatory standstill that constrains policy space
- Not only developing countries, but also developed countries are increasingly at the receiving end of investor-state disputes and have to pay substantial compensations to investors
- The time is not ripe for an international agreement on investment either at the WTO or even at UNCTAD
- Developed and developing countries should take a strategic and not ideological approach towards BITs and IIAs. For example, Brazil despite not having investor-state dispute settlement provisions is one of the most attractive countries for investors.
Main points presented and discussed included:
- Wealth is created by a nation’s policies and competition; monopolies are not conducive for wealth creation
- National competitiveness requires appropriate policies to build on existing advantages. These should focus on “trade in tasks” and “trade in value creation”
- Studies show a mismatch between unemployment and skills in developing countries, thus a need to revamp and reform their educational systems
- Qatar Foundation is focusing on unlocking human capital
An event on Women in Development focused on the following aspects:
- Women are quite critical for driving societal change. We have seen that in examples from Egypt, Iraq etc. Women also played a big role in the Arab spring revolution
- The role of women in revolutions for social change is not unique. We have precedence of women playing pivotal role throughout the history
- We should build on the success stories of womens’ leadership and push forward their development
- Role of women should be defined as women see them not as others see them.
- Representation of women in government should increase, and women participation in politics should be encouraged
A Panel Discussion on ‘The Rise of South’ discussed the following points:
- The rise of poor people in developing countries should be seen as the rise of South
- Threats need to be tacked to keep the growth robust and on track for emerging economies. Some of these threats are: rise in commodities prices, declining fiscal health problems related to social inclusion and infrastructure development. Development banks like the one being considered by BRICS can be a possible solution
- Investment in Africa by countries like Brazil, India and China should not be seen as a point of friction with traditional western partners, but in addition to it. Much of the funding is going into infrastructure projects, which will help all countries in Africa
- For engaging in industrial policy emerging countries do not have to be technically the most sound, rather employment-creation has to be the central idea, said Dr Rob Davies, South Africa’s Minister for Trade & Industry. “Also, wisdom to withdraw strategies that do not work well should be encouraged”
- In South-South Cooperation, investment projects have to be looked from the development dimension as well. They should not be selected purely on the basis of return on investments.
- India is contributing hugely to capacity and institutional building in Africa, so that they can develop on their own, said Anand Sharma, Commerce & Industry Minister from India. “We have been doing this from the 1960s, even when the Indian economy was not so strong. This programme has been strengthened and enhanced since the last two decades, because India’s economic growth has been very high”.
- Calls were also made to promote South-South and South-North triangular cooperation, which will involve three parties to implement development projects, the donor, the recipient and a technical assistance provider, including NGOs.
CUTS International Daily Bulletin
UNCTAD XIII, 21-26 April 2012, Doha, Qatar
Bulletin 2: April 22, 2012
The second day of UNCTAD XIII had several sessions discussing various aspects of trade and development. After the opening ceremony yesterday, topped with an excellent late evening reception by the Government of Qatar in the exclusive Diplomatic Club, the deliberations started today with the International Investment Agreements (IIA) Conference and other parallel sessions including at the CSO Forum.
The IIA Conference comprised of distinguished speakers who presented their views and deliberated on issues ranging from country experiences on IIAs to the way forward for UNCTAD.
The key issues which were highlighted and solicit global attention include:
- There is a need to make the IIA’s more comprehensive in scope and coverage by including issues like competition policy, IPRs, environmental protection regulations, legal framework for managing capital risks, public health and safety, employment conditions and worker’s rights, among others, under its ambit
- Developing countries should focus on building capacities to negotiate these agreements
- There is a need to focus on core things that parties (desirous of entering into an investment agreement) agree to instead of making it unnecessarily complex by incorporating contentious issues
- Many speakers pondered whether BITs create stable environment for investment, whether BIT can lead to more FDI flows, whether they are a means to promote economic governance, and also whether countries need BITs, given the fact that many developing countries are getting FDI inflows from such countries with whom they do not have any investment agreement
- There should be consistency between investor protection and right to regulate
- Investment flows should drive domestic reforms
- Some of the problems associated with BITs in developing countries include issues related to national treatment, MFN, transfer of funds, and also risks associated with international arbitration
- For developing countries, it is important that they proceed for BIT only when they have some compelling economic reason for it
- The IIAs should not constrain domestic policy space
- The new investment regulations should reflect stakeholder consultations, shared best practices, cost-benefit analysis and include socially-sensitive sectors like labour standards, which will broaden the coverage of IIAs
- Domestic policies should be evolved to make business climate more conducive for foreign investments
- The concept of sustainable development should not be confined to environment alone. Besides environment, the other two pillars which constitute it include economy and equity
- Governments need to play a pivotal role in ensuring transparency of investment agreements
A Roundtable was organised on the theme of Enabling Environment at all levels in support of inclusive and sustainable development.
The issues flagged by the panelists include:
CSO Forum too resumed after the break of one day and several events were organised by CSOs. A session on WTO Accession: Costs and Opportunities for Development focused on understanding relative costs and opportunities for membership of the WTO.
- There has been growth without development in many African countries
- There is a need for private sector to focus on infrastructure development
- Conclusion of DDA is critical. Special focus on LDCs and big push to employment in poor countries is highly desired to avoid turbulence which led to Arab Spring
- There is a need to focus on Aid-for-Trade and technology transfer
- ODA is declining and therefore focus on development cooperation is becoming all the more necessary
- Creating enabling environment for a development-led globalization is an utmost necessity and countries should focus on it
Some of the issues highlighted in the session include:
- Lot of countries which consider joining the WTO are not being able to assess the complete package of accession and its negative and positive impacts on the economy. This is an important issue as it affects future growth and development prospects
- In the last ministerial of the WTO new guidelines for the accession package of the LDCs were proposed. These guidelines are a forward looking step but they are not binding.
- The assessment framework provided by these guidelines should be authentic. The guidelines also are not applicable to many countries which are not LDCs such as Algeria, Iran, Iraq and others.
- The Panelists discussed different approaches to evaluating the potential impact on an economy of a proposed accession package including different strategies for ensuring that trade strategy preserves adequate policy space for development. Different experiences were shared from countries going through current negotiations.
A discussion was organised by CUTS International on Future Challenges of Global Economic Governance and Role of the Emerging South.
The key highlights include:
- Increasing role of emerging economies like BRICS in the global governance system is not a function of economic growth only
- Strengthening cooperation among these countries significantly contributes to their increasing influence
- Over the last few years these countries have been broadening and deepening their coordination in various policy spheres and trying to strengthen the Southern voice
- The emerging South can play significant role in enhancing South-South and Triangular Cooperation
Later, the UNCTAD Committee of the Whole, consisting of all member governments of UNCTAD, held its first plenary meeting amid continuing differences among UNCTAD members regarding the focus of UNCTAD work in the next four years.
Highlights include:
The General Debate organised in the evening stressed that Doha impasse has resulted in surge in RTAs which does not benefit all countries. It was also discussed that globalisation cannot take place unchecked. We need to keep in mind that globalisation is a means to an end not the end in itself. UNCTAD should ideally play role in ensuring it. It was also stressed that ground realities of developing countries should be taken into account rather than their growing GDP to get a true picture of development therein.
- Secretary General of UNCTAD made an impassioned appeal to forge unity and give a comprehensive and focused mandate to UNCTAD to continue working on issues related to trade and development to assist developing countries in a challenging and changing global economic environment
- His opening statement was followed by statements from several important groups of countries including, G-77 and China, EU, Asia Group, Africa Group, Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries and the EU: all reiterating their commitment to reach an agreement regarding UNCTAD mandate during this Conference
- However, they also underlined that the differences were substantial and will require consistent efforts and innovative solutions
- Developing countries in particular argued that UNCTAD mandate should include work on issues such as: the financial and economic crisis, global economic governance, technology transfer and IPR, policy space, climate change, social protection, unilateral measures, programme of assistance to Palestinian people, triangular cooperation, food security, and migration and remittances
- It was emphasized that the objective should be not to weaken but enhance and strengthen UNCTAD. CSO Declaration adopted at the CSO Forum on 20 April was also presented to member countries during the plenary
On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 10:09 PM, CUTS CITEE <cuts...@gmail.com> wrote:
The thirteenth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was inaugurated in Doha, Qatar today. Its theme is “Development-led globalization: Towards sustainable and inclusive development paths”. There are four sub-themes dealing with issues of enabling economic environment; cooperation and partnership for trade and development; addressing persistent and emerging development challenges; and promoting investment, trade, entrepreneurship and related development policies, respectively.CUTS International Daily Bulletin
UNCTAD XIII, 21-26 April 2012, Doha, QatarBulletin 1: April 21, 2012
In the morning, World Leaders Investment Summit was held as part of the 3-day World Investment Forum organized by UNCTAD's Division on Investment and Enterprise in collaboration with the government of Qatar. Political and business leaders addressing the World Leaders Investment Summit concurred that the business should look beyond profits and play its role in promoting sustainable and inclusive development.
The business leaders on their part emphasized that most businesses now look beyond their shareholders to create value for the wider group of stakeholders. It was highlighted that it makes business sense to improve the living conditions of the people where the businesses invest as it improves productivity of their labour. Similarly, the dependence of businesses on relevant inputs and raw materials require them to be conscious of the limits on exploitation of these resources and develop and adopt more sustainable practices. The business leaders felt that all – political leaders, businesses, and NGOs - need to work together to find solutions to the problems of under development.
Also, a need for coherence between government policies on the one hand and business needs and practices on the other. With concrete examples from their own work, they demonstrated that governments and businesses can and should work together.
In a retrospect, the issue of generating jobs and employment remained a key highlight of the day. In a retrospect, some of the issues that were highlighted and merits utmost attention include: