WTO-Mock Summit is Six Years!

 

Speech Delivered at Training on WTO-Mock Summit 2010

Bayero University, Kano – Nigeria

 

I am happy to see many of you present inspite of the short notice. This gives me happiness and confidence as this year we have to tackle preparation with fastness to achieve maximum success.

 

This coming summit is going to be the Sixth Round. The first was in 2005 and since then we have never missed this important annual event.

 

The successes and the feedback we have continued to receive are numerous to be tabled and discussed here. Nevertheless I could mention few:

1. We have moved from local to a group with international recognition and importance in the circle of global trade interest.
   
2. We have carried the name of Bayero University, Kano, especially among concerned parents to a higher pedestal, as seen in the case of one parent who sent me a GSM text message which said that he has no regret to send his daughter to read in BUK because of the mock summit played on the campus.
   
3. Another success brought by the summit to the society generally is that it has become a certificate for securing jobs both in the private and public sector. Furthermore, information that comes to me from time to time is that in various places of jobs where there are WTO-Mock Summit participants, they are distinguished by team work to attain the goal of the organization they work, hard work and performance.
   
4. In 2008, the WTO-Mock Summit Group proposed a working programme and formed many committees which will enable the Group to become a National and Research Centre to disseminate ideas about global trade. This is affirmed and stressed in 2009. This proposal remains but there are problems along the way to push it foreword.
   
5. Meanwhile, we have opened a website in 2008 and since then all the speeches of the Mock-Summit are posted there.
   
6. Again, since 2008 we are determined to process the pictures of the summits into the website, but still we are unable to do it.
   
7. We believe that we would continue with our efforts until we overcome all difficulties along way. An encouraging development is that during the 2009 training session, a former Minister of Commerce of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who heard of the WTO-Mock Summit came round and expressed his appreciation. There and then, he directly connected us with WTO Secretariat in Geneva and now regularly received News Letters on global trade. He also sent a book of Laws/Agreements of the WTO.
   
8. Again, from 2008 we have started compiling the speeches and printing the communiqué of the WTO-Mock Summit for future reference.
   

 

Anyway we can continue talking endlessly on this. In the next convocation ceremonies we are going to organize a reception for mock summit participants of 2009 and 2010 "Doha boys and girls", so, there we are going to talk more about this.

 

Well, I can see that some of you have been part of the Mock-Summit since 2008 but I am happy that there are many new faces. This is a guarantee for continuity.

 

The mock summit of this year is different from others before it. The past ones were full Ministerial summits which brought all Ministers of trade of member countries to negotiate global trade issues. On the other hand the 2010 summit is a Mini-ministerial Summit of a consultative type to break the deadlock which holds the WTO from moving foreword. Accordingly, only member countries with special interests in global trade are represented.

 

The organization of the summit is that it is not going to be hosted by any member country but the secretariat of the WTO in Geneva. So it is going to be tagged "Geneva 2010". The chairman of the summit (Lawi Isah Abdullahi) is the mock chairman of the General Council of the WTO. Still, there will be Commission Reports and Trade Delegates Speeches. The speeches of the delegates must include recommendations, which would be further discussed and debated.

 

In the end the summit may break without agreement; or it may agree to set agenda for a full Ministerial Conference; or may end up with "lets go and continue with consultations". Whichever of these three scenarios the summit has come up with there would be a position paper which is going to be posted through online system to the secretariat of the real WTO.

 

Now let me join in the discussion the subject-matter of the coming mock-summit clearly. It is already detailed in the briefing paper on 2010 WTO-Mock Summit. As it is going to be a Consultative Forum it is framed around a theme "The WTO Doha Round and the current Multilateral Trading System: which way Forward". In other words the mock summit is intended to capture the reality of global trade today which is that the GATT-WTO System is in crisis and so what would be the future of international trade.

 

The crisis of global trade under WTO-regime is not new, but the recent financial crisis has aggravated it-pushing for more disagreements and uncertainties between and among various groups under the regime.

 

The popular parlance in global trade i.e. Doha Development Agenda is an expression of this problem but is refused to be addressed up to when the recent financial crisis became deep, which made it more difficult to negotiate the DDA.

 

The idea of DDA is that the entire institution of global trade and the ideology governing it is to be reformed in such away to make trade brings development to developing and underdeveloped country members of the WTO.

 

So you are going to report, examine and debate various aspects of global trade under the WTO-regime with a view of suggesting the way forward for bringing back the WTO negotiations to continue in order to reposition the global trade organization.

 

However, you must bear in mind that this kind of crisis is not new in the governance of multilateral trading system. In recorded history it is there that immediately after the Second World War when International Trade Organisation (ITO) was borne, one of the major actors i.e. USA refused to ratify the charter i.e. Havana Charter because it needed a space to establish a monopoly in the large markets of Europe and the developing countries. Secondly, the USA wanted to remove "Development" clause in the Havana Charter.

 

The global trade did not move forward until when in 1948, ITO was replaced by GATT, which retained some provisions of ITO and added new ones of limited liberation of trade. So, the GATT regime was delivered. The GATT system, although contained rules for limited liberation of trade, yet the major actors weakened the rules by allowing exceptions deliberately to favour them.

 

When in the late 1960s global economic crisis spread which caused the break-down of the IMF fixed exchange between the major currencies, the GATT system became shaken and virtually dead, never to rise again as original GATT regime.

 

As the GATT system became weak and powerless, the multilateral trading system became lawless – with all kind of protectionism and restriction everywhere until when it was hoped that another reform which delivered GATT-WTO in 1994 is expected to resolve the crisis.

 

It seems that the global power relation does not change. The same problems have re-emerged under GATT-WTO regime. Or are they not the same? What are you going to suggest?

 

I wish you happy and as usual rigorous training to finalise the agenda for WTO-mock Summit 2010.

 

M. M. Yusif

Department of Political Science

Bayero University, Kano – Nigeria

Director WTO-Mock Summit

28-11-2011