Mini-Symposium on Developing Countries in the Doha Round : Introduction

In July 2004, the annual conference on Preparing the Doha Development Round: WTO Negotiators Meet the Academics at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute in Florence discussed the role of Developing Countries in the Doha Round: WTO Decision-Making Procedures and WTO Negotiations on Trade in Agricultural Goods and Services. As in the 2002 conference and 2003 conference, leading academics presented ten papers on the pertinent subjects of the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and WTO negotiators commented on these reports, eliciting stimulating discussions among WTO ambassadors, other practitioners from developed and less-developed WTO member countries, economists, political scientists and legal academics. This mini-symposium reproduces 12 - the updated text of the keynote speech by Peter Sutherland, former Director-General of the WTO, on the Development Agenda of the Doha Round;- the evaluation by Faizel Ismail, Head of the South African Delegation to the WTO in Geneva and Chairman of the WTO negotiations on special and differential treatment, of the `Development Perspective` of the WTO General Council Decision of July 2004;- the policy proposals by Bernard Hoekman for helping less-developed WTO Members more effectively in implementing WTO rules and realizing the welfare gains offered by the WTO;- and the suggestions by John S. Odell for enhancing the capacity of WTO chairs to influence consensus-building, and the resulting distribution of gains and losses, with due regard to the need for inclusive decision-making in the WTO.This introduction discusses the general question underlying all conference papers: How can the development objectives of the Doha Round be defined more convincingly? Unless the Doha Round delivers obvious advantages for less-developed WTO Members that are also accepted by national parliaments and civil society as justified and `just`, the needed consensus on a successful conclusion of the `Development Round` risks remaining elusive