Global Issue Paper No. 25
By Nelson Giordano Delgado and Adriano Campolina de O. Soares
December 2005
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Foreword:
By Thomas W. Fatheuer, Heinrich Boell Foundation – Rio de Janeiro
The Doha round of WTO negotiations is progressing with greater difficulty than many of the protagonists had hoped. It was already becoming apparent prior to the Cancun Conference (2003) and particularly in Cancun itself that many countries of the South were no longer prepared to accept the proposals negotiated by the world's most powerful states. The world's poorest countries, grouped together in the G-77, acted with astounding self-confidence. The great novelty of the Doha round, however, was the formation of the group that has come to be known as the G-20, set up on the basis of a Brazilian initiative in the run-up to the Cancun Conference.
Nelson Delgado and Adriano Soares have produced a detailed and well-informed study examining the emergence and development of the G-20. In their report, the authors note that the G-20 is a complex phenomenon that does not lend itself to oversimplified generalisations. The G-20 does not represent a new bloc of resistance to the ruling powers of the world economic order - the G-20 is too closely connected to the interests of free trade for that. The G-20 is not a rebellion against the WTO and its leading powers; what it wants to achieve is a change of emphasis and greater influence over the negotiations. Nor is the G-20 simply the attempt of countries previously confined to the status of also-rans to share at the top table with the most powerful negotiators. The authors put aside such a simplified interpretation in favour of a more sophisticated approach. They see the formation of the G-20 as a watershed moment, not just because it brings together the big players of the South (China, India, and Brazil) but also because it brings new considerations to the dynamics of the talks. The claim of the Doha Round to be a "development round" has been taken up by the G-20 and employed as a critical argument against the proposals of the USA and the EU. The hesitant dismantling of export subsidies for agricultural products has made the northern bloc more than vulnerable to such criticism.
The countries united within the G-20 certainly have their own conflicting interests. Brazil, as the biggest agricultural exporter, is primarily interested in expanded market access, while for India protectionist issues lie at the centre of its agricultural agenda. The particular achievement of the new group is in balancing such divergent interests; or at least in beginning to attempt to do so, for the G20 is certainly not a conflict-free zone and its future remains uncertain. The complex character of the G-20 sets it apart from alliances such as the Cairns Group, which aimed solely to represent the interests of agricultural export nations.
This study by Nelson Delgado and Adriano Soares distinguishes itself with an approach that takes the complexity and contradictions of the G-20 seriously, resulting in a sophisticated analysis that goes beyond mere praise or damnation.