Draft Resolution Submitted by Mexico

THE SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASIA PACIFIC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM

Considering that the Doha Round was launched in 2001 with the objective of creating new market opportunities, strengthening norms on multilateral commerce and confronting current imbalances of the commercial system, putting commerce at the service of sustainable development, with special emphasis on economic inclusion of countries in development, and particularly, of the less developed;

Considering that non-conclusion of the Doha Round would contribute to current world uncertainty and could threaten the credibility of multilateral commerce, provoking reorientation toward commercial agreements of a bilateral and regional type;

Recognizing the efforts of the WTO General Director to reach a conclusion on negotiations of the Doha Round and because of this organism’s proposals to include the simplification of customs duties, the erosion of preferences, peak custom duties and “special producers” and for the liberation of commerce among 153 WTO member countries;

Considering that the WTO plays a basic role in assuring better management of globalization and fairer distribution of its benefits, especially toward Less Developed Countries (LDC);

Recognizing that higher prices have reduced protectionism in countries because of lower custom duties being charged on imported products, input and machinery linked to agriculture to confront their food safety;

Highlighting that developed countries, such as the United States and the European Union have reduced their subsidies for production, making the acceptance of cutbacks proposed in the Round’s agricultural proposal possible;

Resolves to:

1.             Express concern for the failure of negotiations of the Doha Round in July of 2008 in Geneva, highlighting that this implies a loss of economic growth and development at a world scale;

2.             Exhort developing countries to base the request for reductions on customs duties in matters of food safety, subsistence safety and rural development;

3.             Exhort more advanced developed countries to assume their responsibility as world-scale participants and make decisions adequate to their level of development and sectoral competitiveness;

4.             Foster developing countries to establish policies to improve the productivity and income of poor framers and reduce the risk of dislocating agriculture;

5.             Exhort WTO members to work together with a collaborative mind, collective wisdom and maximum courage to establish a solid base for the successful conclusion of Doha Round negotiations;

6.             Urge WTO members to fulfill the basis principles of non-discrimination, transparency and consensus among the 153 countries and territories that are members of the WTO in order to achieve an agreement in negotiations of the Doha Round;

7.             State their conviction that, following the Doha Round, commercial challenges, such as investment, competition, public contracting, application and sustainability should be approached by the WTO;

8.             Exhort APPF members to insist that their governments jointly plan a preliminary project for a global commercial agreement that includes special safeguarding mechanisms, which allow developing countries to temporarily increase customs duties when import volumes increase or prices undergo a sudden drop; the amount and treatment of sensitive products; and the erosion of sectoral actions and preferences in the case of industrial merchandise;

9.             Firstly, insist that the 153 WTO members negotiate the percentages of global duty and subsidy reductions for agricultural issues, which cause a distortion of commerce and discuss exceptions later.