Statement of World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick
on Doha WTO Negotiations
Contacts:
Richard S. Newfarmer +41-22-748-1010
rnewfarmer@worldbank.org
Amy L. Stilwell +1 (202)458-4906
astilwell@worldbank.org

Washington, DC August 18, 2008 – World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick issued the following statement today on the Doha WTO
negotiations -

“As the dust settles from the breakdown of the WTO negotiations in Geneva, some parties are recognizing that there was a good package of results left
on the table. It would be a mistake for the world economy and harmful for developing countries not to retrieve it.

President Lula of Brazil has called on the parties not to let the WTO negotiations fail because of differences over a special safeguard for agriculture.
He is right.

Given the high food prices around the world and the need for poor people to lower their cost of food, it just does not make sense for the Doha
negotiations to founder upon this barrier.

Working with WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, the United States, India, and China should come up with a compromise. Brazil, a developing country
that is both a major agricultural exporter and home to many poor farmers, can help. Indonesia and Australia may be in a position to contribute to a
solution too.

There are ways to solve this problem. Here are some suggestions:

       A big problem with safeguards is that once a country triggers them, it can take two years or more to challenge the grounds for imposing them. In
       the meantime, the new barriers block trade. So a compromise could create a speedy due process for challenges, without appeal.


       All parties seem to agree that safeguards should not be imposed to block normal trade flows. But they disagree on how much of a change
       warrants the temporary protection of a safeguard. Since the purpose of a safeguard is to help cushion the effect of a significant increase in
       imports on local producers, an acceptable justification for the safeguard could require examination of factors in addition to increased trade flows.


       Under current WTO practice, the economy imposing a safeguard decides how much protection is appropriate. But this protection could be
       disciplined and limited.


It may be understandable that tired negotiators couldn’t assemble these and perhaps other variables in a way to solve the problem. But they should not
quit trying. With this many elements to deploy, people who want a deal should be able to achieve one. There is too much at stake to let this problem
derail a global trade package that could expand economic growth and opportunity by cutting cut subsidies drastically, lowering tariffs significantly, and
opening up services markets. There is a good Doha deal still to be seized.”

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