The Fifth Ministerial Conference was held on 10 to 14 September, 2003. It began with a number of unresolved issues and some pre-planned strategies by the developed countries.
While Doha Round had recognised the inequity of the Uruguay Round agreements against the developing countries, the developed countries were still avoiding implementation of the commitments already made by them.
And, on top of it, they wanted to bind the weaker economies still tighter with additional commitments. For achieving this purpose, they were hoping to make an effective use of several negotiating tactics including the following.
Negotiating Tactics of Developed Countries:
(i) Having simultaneous negotiations on a large number of subjects knowing that the developing countries had a limited capacity of understanding their full implications. The latter also did not possess enough negotiating experts and data to go by.
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(ii) Using involved and complicated legal terminology to put the developing countries off the track.
(iii) Use of cleverly worded drafting (such as “helping” the developing countries in structural reforms while really meaning “forcing” them to do so).
(iv) Behind the scenes negotiations with individual developing countries so as to undermine the possibility of their taking a united stand.
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(v) Heavy agricultural subsidies had been harming the farmers of the developing countries. Instead of implementing their earlier commitments of reducing these subsidies, developed countries had been finding ways of enhancing them.
Just on the eve of Cancun Conference US and EU entered into an agreement to create an impression that the poorer countries had nothing to worry about this issue. Factually, however, this US-EU agreement was vague and non-committal.