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THE CANCUN MINISTERIAL of the World Trade Organisation, that ended on Sunday, failed to tell the world in clear terms that work on the Doha Round — slated to become effective by the beginning of 2005 — was on course. Indeed, the value of Cancun is that it has indicated to the world clearly that the differences between the developed and developing countries on such subjects as trade liberalisation in agriculture and the four "Singapore issues" are too wide to be bridged; this, however, does not preclude an agreement being hammered out in the months ahead.

To ther words, t<137>he position now is that while the conference has ended, the "Cancun process" itself continues. Fanning the embers of hope, the Ministerial statement says the members have instructed their officials "to continue working on outstanding issues with a renewed sense of urgency and purpose... taking fully into account all the views... expressed in this conference". Some sort of a "deadline" has been set with the Ministers asking the WTO General Council chairman, in "close cooperation" with the Director-General, to coordinate the discussions and convene a meeting of the Council "at senior officials level" by December 15 "to take the action necessary at that stage to enable us to move towards a successful and timely conclusion of the negotiations".

So it will once again be back to Geneva to allow officials to resolve differences on crucial subjects without which the Doha Round simply cannot take off. The principal areas of concern are agriculture and the Singapore issues, Cancun underscoring the fact that only a trade-off in these two areas can lead to a "compromise" among the principal protagonists — the US-EU versus the over 70 developing countries ranged under different umbrellas. In fact, an important revelation of Cancun is that the spirit of Seattle, lives on. It is now well-established that the poor world can not only unite to protect its cause vis-à-vis the multilateral trading system but, perhaps more important, also stand firm under the most severe pressure exerted by the rich economies to desert their colleagues. There is, however, a nagging worry that the unity could develop cracks if some of the poor economies buckle under the pressure sure to be exerted by the rich.

As it is the US-EU combine had propped up the Singapore issues as a bargaining chip vis-à-vis the poor countries' firm stand on farm issues such as domestic support for farmers and substantial export subsidies. Washington and Brussels were not willing to compromise beyond a point, even if that was out of sync with the Doha Round-envisaged zero-tariff regime, both in non-farm and farm sectors, which must ultimately go in favour of the stronger economies because of their superior export capabilities. Complimented must be the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, for stating in his message to Cancun that there were subsidies by the rich economies "that tilt the playing field against the poor", and the chief Indian negotiator, the Commerce Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, who fought well New Delhi's (and the developing world's) case.

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