Relief comes at end of successful negotiations

As World Trade Organisation (WTO) delegates from 142 countries left Qatar after six days of negotiations this week, the overwhelming feeling was one of relief. Following their failure to set up a new trade round in Seattle two years ago, a second failure would have called into question the entire system of regulating global trade.

The negotiations introduced this week, which will be known as the Doha Round, will take at least three years to complete - but some economists are already predicting that they will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the world economy. According to one estimate, the economic impact will be the equivalent of creating two new Chinas.

After the events of September 11th, which accelerated the economic downturn already under way, this week's decision in Qatar is a badly needed boost to confidence - a factor that many analysts see as the key to recovery.

The US was determined that a new trade round should be set up and the Trade Representative, Mr Robert Zoellick, and the Agriculture Secretary, Ms Ann Veneman, played an important role in resolving the most difficult issues during the last, long night of negotiations.

The US made an important concession to developing countries by agreeing that WTO patent protection rules should not prevent countries from taking measures to protect public health. This will allow poor countries to produce cheap versions of drugs to treat conditions such as HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.

Washington's ambitions were limited to introducing a round that would further lower tariffs and liberalise trade. The European Union had a more ambitious agenda, which was only partially fulfilled.

The EU was happy that the WTO agreed that sustainable development would be an overarching goal of the negotiations and welcomed a decision to clarify the relationship between trade and the environment.

The EU's Trade Commissioner, Mr Pascal Lamy, also welcomed the decision to move towards a multilateral framework on competition policies and conditions for foreign direct investment.

Negotiations on these issues will not start for at least two years, but the EU regards their appearance on the agenda as an important step.

Among the most important EU achievements in Qatar is that, despite differences among the 15 member-states, they remained united and negotiated successfully as a group.

The candidate countries that hope to join the EU during the next few years became de facto members of the EU bloc, offering support for EU positions.

Mr Lamy and Agriculture Commissioner Mr Franz Fischler negotiated on behalf of the 15 member-states, on the basis of a strict mandate agreed in advance that could only be changed with the unanimous approval of all 15.

According to that mandate, the EU could not agree to a commitment to eliminate export subsidies for agriculture and, despite pressure from other member-states, France and the Republic refused to consider changing the mandate on this point.

As negotiations dragged on, some delegations privately accused Irish Minister for Agriculture Mr Walsh and French Trade Minister Mr Francois Huwart of jeopardising the entire agreement for the sake of national political concerns.

"I don't know what has happened to the Irish. They used to be one of the most popular and co-operative members, but now they always seem to be selfish, saying no," a member of one EU delegation said.

The agreement of a form of words that saved face on all sides resolved the impasse on agriculture and ensured that the Republic could not be accused of blocking a new trade round. But both Mr Walsh and the Minister of State for Enterprise and Trade, Mr Tom Kitt, acknowledged that such brinkmanship must be the exception rather than the rule in negotiations. And both men stressed that the Republic could not have achieved its objective on agriculture without the support of the rest of the EU.

The agreement on agriculture commits members to make substantial cuts in export subsidies, a move that developing countries welcomed.

Agriculture remains the most important element in most poor countries' economies. Improved access to developed markets for their farm exports is crucial to boosting their economic growth.

Before they came to Qatar, many delegates declared that they wanted the next round of trade talks to be a "development round", addressing the needs of developing countries.

But few developing countries believe that this week's declaration reflects their concerns, and many fear that the agenda for the new round is so wide that it will overload their negotiating capacity. Mr Michael Bailey of Oxfam acknowledged that, with 25 million Africans infected with HIV, the agreement on access to medicines was an important step forward.

"The deal on patents will help poor countries get cheaper medicines. Doha sends a strong message that people's health overrides the interests of big drug companies, who will find it much harder to bully poor countries over patents," he said.

One reason the WTO meeting was held in Doha was because the Qatari authorities would not allow entry to protesters who believed that world trade rules put the interests of business ahead of those of people.

Mr David Joyce of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, who attended this week's conference, believes the WTO has missed a valuable opportunity to popularise trade liberalisation by refusing to address the effects of globalisation on labour standards.

"The demand to recognise some of the negative effects of trade on the rights of millions of workers around the world was ignored. That poses a real threat to the support of unions and workers for the system of multilateral trade agreements," he said.