Developing countries participating in the WTO ministerial level talks in Hong Kong indicated that they would forge a bigger coalition, likely to be called the G-110, by roping in the G-20, the G-33 and the G-90, to ensure that developed countries do not dilute the contours of any global trade agreement by splitting them.
The G-110 will represent the biggest group of poor countries and include developing nations such as India, Brazil, Kenya and Malaysia. The coalition is expected to come into force before the release of the final Hong Kong declaration on Saturday.
The formation of a greater coalition is significant as it is perhaps for the first time at a WTO ministerial, that nearly all the developing countries are attempting to stick together. Barring Cancun, the earlier ministerial meetings had usually seen the US and the EU come together against the developing countries.
Zambian Commerce and Industry Minister Dipak Patel told reporters that the G-90 would have a meeting with the G-20 tomorrow to discuss areas of common interest which could be followed by a joint statement or a declaration.
His Indian counterpart Kamal Nath said both the groups would try to develop common positions on various issues. "Just these two groups coming together will mean 125 countries of the 149 members of the WTO, which is a sizeable coalition," he said.
The announcement from the developing countries came even as the US and the EU blamed each other for the deadlock in negotiations.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the 25-member trading block was willing to come out with a date for the elimination of export subsides for agriculture products but wanted to know what other members were willing to do in related areas like state trading enterprises, food aid and export credit. Mandelson made it clear that the EU was not willing to move unilaterally.
He also said countries should focus on market access in industrial goods as the developing countries stood to gain more from this on the development front.
On his part, US Trade Representative Rob Portman said agriculture was key to the success of the negotiations. He said the US was willing to eliminate export subsidies by 2010 but pointed out that this had nothing to do with issues like food aid.
Both sides also continue to differ on the contours of the development package with the US saying that the implementation would be linked to ending the Doha round, while the EU said the package should be implemented as early as possible.
The US today announced that it would be willing to provide duty- and quota-free access to cotton from west Africa under the LDC package. The EU responded by saying that though this was a step in the right direction, more needed to be done.
