World Trade Organisation (WTO) director-general Pascal Lamy has called on members to think about ‘what’s next’ for the Doha round and the global trade body, after they failed to agree on a package of achievable outcomes for the December Ministerial meeting.

“What we are seeing today is the paralysis in the negotiating function of the WTO, whether it is on market access or on the rule making. What we are facing is the inability of the WTO to adapt and adjust to emerging global trade priorities, those you cannot solve through bilateral deals,” he said.

The Doha Development Agenda was initiated to deliver trade improvements, in particular, for developing countries, and the negotiations started in 2001. Since then, the 153 WTO member states of have not been able to reach agreement on the Doha round.

“This [Doha impasse] risks overshadowing the achievements in other parts of the WTO functions, such as monitoring, surveillance, dispute settlement or even Aid for Trade. There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop a shared diagnosis over the current impasse and what went wrong, as a means to prepare a discussion over possible solutions, as well as over emerging issues,” added Lamy.

While some member states continued to urge for an agreement with regard to the Doha round, a number of commentators have said that the Doha round is dead.

Following the recognition that big decisions on the major sticking points of the round – namely agriculture and nonagricultural market access – would not be forthcoming at the December conference, talk of a ‘plan B’ or ‘Doha-lite’ were suggested.

This alternative would have likely included a duty-free quota-free access agreement – an aid-for-trade package opening markets to least developed countries (LDCs) – which could facilitate the elimination of nontariff barriers in LDCs and a resolution of the ‘cotton dossier’, putting a stop to subsidies for cotton farmers in the US.

“We all knew that this was not going to be the final package, but rather, a step forward to demonstrate that we could deliver some results on the Doha Development Agenda, while waiting to finalise the full Doha package,” said Lamy.

He added that it was clear from the start that LDC issues were a priority. However, some members felt that the LDC component alone would not address their constituency requirements and that there had to be a “plus” element in addition to the LDC part of the package.

“The LDC-Plus package as we framed it in May is not taking shape as we would have wished. Unfortunate and frustrating as this situation may be, the question on all of your minds, then, is what next?” said Lamy.

He said there were two main positions on ‘what next’. The first was to concentrate on non-Doha round Ministerial issues, and abandon the pursuit of a ‘Doha-lite’ package of agreements.

Lamy said that proponents of this position argued that to keep on working for such a package would “suck oxygen from the other two tracks and would endanger the preparations for the ministerial”. They also argued that maintaining expectations for an LDC-Plus package that did not look doable by the time of the conference would put the credibility of the WTO at risk.

The second position was that of members who urged that LDC Doha-related issues remain a focus for the Ministerial meeting, and the possibility of delivering on these should not be foreclosed.

Lamy said that, in his view, and in light of the current political environment, it appeared that the most realistic and practical way forward was to work on the two tracks of non-Doha issues of the WTO, and the Doha Agenda post-Ministerial meeting in December.

Lamy said that his aim after the summer vacation in the Northern hemisphere was to intensify consultations on Doha work that could be undertaken after December.