ECONOMICS AND SECURITY 218 ESC 05 E Original: English NAT O   Pa rl ia me n ta ry  As s e mb l y DRAFT RESOLUTION on ADVANCING THE DOHA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA presented by Hugh BAYLEY(United Kingdom), Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Economic Relation s and Bert KOENDERS (Netherlands), Vice-President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly The Assembly, 1. Recognizing that 2005 has been declared the Year of Development, during which a number of  initiatives  designed  to  pull  millions  of  people  out  of  poverty  have  been  either  launched  or advanced; 2. Observing   that   these   initiatives   include:   debt   cancellation   for   the   most   impoverished countries, increased aid, formal commitments by developing countries to improve governance and transparency   and,   most   importantly,   the   Doha   Development   Agenda   of   multi-lateral   trade negotiations; 3. Applauding developed and developing country negotiators for agreeing to a trade negotiation framework, in which every topic under negotiation during the Doha Round has a vital development dimension; 4. Acknowledging   that  the  successful  conclusion  of  the  Doha  Agenda  would  also  bring enormous benefit to the world's wealthier countries by lowering trade barriers, increasing market depth, triggering more efficient capital allocation, slashing prices and ultimately generating greater economic activity; 5. Convinced  that  extending greater market  access  to the  developing  world,  especially  in  the agricultural sector, represents the greatest contribution to development that Western countries can make because 70% of the world's poor live in rural areas; because 90% of the potential gains from

218 ESC 05 E 2 a Doha agreement would be generated through market access reforms; and because open trading systems create growth and pull people out of poverty; 6. Recognizing  that  for  many  developing  countries  participating  in  the  Doha  negotiations, agricultural trade liberalization is the highest priority; 7. But lamenting the lack of progress in the current negotiations, and most notably the failure to find common ground in agricultural talks concerning market access, tariff peaks (tariffs above 15 % which  have  a  disproportionate  impact  on  agricultural  and  food  products  and  labour-intensive goods) and special and differential treatment provisions designed to ease the burden of transition for developing countries; 8. Observing  that  exempting  just  2%  of  tariff  lines  for  "sensitive  and  special  products"  would eliminate most of the gains developing countries might obtain from tariff reduction; 9. Understanding  that  the  key  to  a  successful  negotiating  round  lies  not  only  in  developed country  concessions  on  agriculture  but  also  developing  country  concessions  in  non-agricultural sectors including manufacturing and services; 10.    Noting that failure to make progress in these difficult areas by the time Ministers convene at the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Conference in December 2005 would potentially undermine these negotiations, which must be concluded at the end of 2006, and thus leave the world trade system operating under an ever more obsolete set of trading rules; 11.    CALLS on member parliamentarians to urge their governments and trade negotiators: a. to extend generous agricultural market access with rapid and substantial reduction of existing tariffs and sharp limits on the designation of so-called "sensitive" goods that can enjoy higher protection   rates,   a   practice   that   hitherto   has   hampered   food   exports   from   developing countries; b. to carry out earlier commitments to ensure that the Doha Agenda results in the elimination of all agricultural export subsidies; c. to support trade facilitation policies and infrastructure projects explicitly designed to help the developing world better exploit the new opportunities that a more open trading system would bring about; d. to  ensure  that  developing  countries,  taking  into  account  special  and  differential  treatment provisions,  make  concessions  in  manufactured  goods  and  service  trading  rules  that  will ultimately benefit developed and developing countries alike; and thus, e. to make 2005 genuinely a year of development implementation and wealth creation.