SEATINI Uganda's Weekly Newsletter
January, 2016 Edition

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) was established in January 1995 following the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations and the adoption of the Uruguay Agreements in 1994 in Marrakech Morocco.  Twenty years later, the 10th WTO ministerial meeting was for the first time held in Africa –in Nairobi - Kenya with very high hopes from Africa and other developing countries of addressing the systemic challenges facing them in the multilateral trading system. The MC10 was concluded on 19th, December 2015 after 5 days of intense negotiations.  The “Nairobi Package”, as the outcome of the MC 10 `has been dubbed contained mainly 6 major decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to LDCs. The outcomes have been variously referred to as “historic” while others have referred to it as   “a package of hollow promises” 
The efficacy of the “Nairobi Package” from the LDCs and Africa’s point of view can be assessed from their expectations; and against the long standing commitments by developed countries to address a number of issues affecting developing and LDCs. This paper will therefore analyse these expectations against the outcomes, and give some proposals on the way forward.
Read more at:http://www.seatiniuganda.org/publications/seatinis-assessment-of-world-trade-organisationwto-10th-ministerial/

 

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) convened its bi-annual meeting in Nairobi Kenya from 15th - 19th December 2015. The conference took place fifteen years after the launch of the Doha Round which promised to put the interests of developing countries at its centre and twenty years after the GATTs trading systems was reincarnated by the Uruguay Round Agreements into the current WTO. As the ministers convened in Nairobi, the fate of the Doha Round was hanging in balance and it is not clear whether the Nairobi Declaration, with its ambiguity on the future work programme did not adversely tilt this balance against its pro-development agenda. It is critical for developing countries to remain united with the unity of purpose if the development content of the Doha agenda is not to be derailed. 

While the WTO functions go beyond being a forum for trade negotiations, the credibility of the organisation, as well as the success of its ministerial conferences over the last decades have inescapably been linked with its negotiating function especially the fate of, or progress made in the Doha Round of trade negotiations. Unfortunately the Doha Round has remained locked in strategic deadlock over differences between developed countries on one hand and developing countries on the other on how it can deliver on the Doha development promise. There has been a push since 2008 by the industrialised countries especially the US and the EU for recalibration of the Doha mandate including putting aside the principle of a single undertaking as agreed on the para 47 of the Doha Declaration and taking on board the Singapore issues. 
Read more at:http://www.seatiniuganda.org/publications/after-nairobi-the-fate-of-the-doha-round-hangs-in-balance/