Caribbean countries propose new formula at NAMA meeting

By Tetteh Hormeku (TWN-Africa and Africa Trade Network)
Geneva, 5 July 2005

A group of Caribbean countries have proposed a new tariff-reduction formula to take into account development concerns during the WTO negotiations now taking place on on non-agricultural market access.

The proposal was presented Monday afternoon at an informal meeting of the NAMA Negotiating Group, which is meeting this week in Geneva. The proposal received broad support from several developing countries, but more coolly by some developed countries.

According to the co-sponsors of the paper, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, their proposed formula is aimed at addressing the development-related requirements of the Doha mandate on NAMA

They explained that they were motivated by the fact that their oft-stated developmental needs and interests have not been adequately assimilated into the various proposals that have been tabled so far, in particular the simple Swiss formula.

In order to remedy this, the Caribbean proposal builds on what it sees as the positive elements of some of the earlier proposals and adds new elements that would enable the specific features of developing countries to be taken into account.

Speaking on behalf of the countries, Ambassador Smith of Jamaica characterised the proposed formula as 'non-linear formula and a la carte system of credits'. He said that this version of the non-linear formula incorporates the variable of average bound tariff rate of member countries as contained in the ABI proposal.

To this is added a further variable, in terms of a credit given for certain characteristics of developing countries. This credit is used to supplement a base coefficient for developing countries, and which will be agreed on by members.

'The more credit a member accumulates on the basis of the criteria underpinning the credit system, the larger the larger the sum of the base coefficient plus credit in numerical terms and thus the more pronounced will be the modulating effect on the level of the tariff reduction a member must undertake' added Amb. Smith.

In their paper, the proponents argued that the eventual modalities for making tariff reductions commitments must at the end of the day be consistent with the negotiating mandate provided to members in paragraph 16 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, where it is unequivocally stated that