South Africa's finance minister Trevor Manuel, who chairs today's Development Committee meeting, yesterday called for a broad-based effort to improve the quality of life of the world's poor.
Manuel wants the committee not only to write off HIPC debt but also to provide a clear signal to the WTO that the Doha round must conclude successfully.
'This meeting is very important because we need to signal to Hong Kong that failure is not an option when the WTO meets in the Doha round,' stated Manuel. 'The key issue for us is to deal with the whole gamut of development issues.'
There is widespread concern that the WTO's next ministerial meeting, taking place this December in Hong Kong with new Director Pascal Lamy at the helm, will fail. Key dates in the run-up preparations for the ministerial were missed this year.
Manuel said that the Development Committee has to provide clarity on development issues to guide the trade negotiations. We must explain that there is a continuum of decision making that deals with the same issue,' said Manuel. 'It speaks to us as decision makers about what we do to improve the quality of life of the world's poorest people.
'Whether we are dealing with debt, with additional resources, with improving the environment that people live in, or with freer market access for the goods produced by the world's poor, all of these are part of the same package.'
Manuel called attention to the great challenges still ahead in finding agreement on many issues. But he pointed out that this weekendÕs meeting were only a starting point to finding a broad consensus.
ÒThis is the first time that all 184 of us finance ministers are here since the announcements of Gleneagles,' Manuel said. 'So this is the buy-in and you have got to see it as an opportunity to do that.
'Going back to 2002, the Monterrey consensus asked for partnership, and that is what we have to consummate in the way that we deal with the development issue in the Development Committee on Sunday.'
The Development Committee will consider a proposal from the World Bank and IMF to ramp up radically trade adjustment assistance to developing countries who fear losing out from trade liberalization. The 'Aid for Trade' program could provide up to $400 million dollars in new funding to help poor countries adjust to opening their markets.
The plan also aims at raising trade amongst developing countries and at strengthening tools to assess whether countries need trade adjustment assistance.
Particularly severe cases could prompt the World Bank and IMF to coordinate with other donors 'to bring an additional package of assistance, in the form of grants or loans as appropriate,' a joint World Bank-IMF report said.