Box 4: Coalitions in the Doha Round

Coalitions play different roles during the negotiations. They can be agenda-setting, proposal making, blocking, and negotiating coalitions. Negotiating coalitions are rare as they require a high level of coordination amongst their members, and similar or convergent interests. The C-4 is an example of a successful South-South negotiating coalition that formed around one issue and one interest.

Agenda-setting coalitions have been very active in the process leading up to Doha and then again at the Cancњn Ministerial Conference. The Colorado group is an example of an agenda-setting coalition. It was formed in 1999 by developed and some developing countries[31] to promote negotiations on trade facilitation in the Doha Round. Since the start of the trade facilitation negotiations in 2004, this group has however never been active as a negotiating coalition.

Developing countries effectively form coalitions in the Doha Round and their impact on the negotiations emerged at the Cancњn Ministerial Conference where they grouped in coalitions to defend their interests and effectively block any deal over the Doha work programme. Two of the influential coalitions of developing countries during the Cancњn Ministerial Conference were the ТCore groupУ and the so-called ТG-20У. The Core group of initially 12 members[32] was resisting negotiations on the so-called Singapore issues and blocked a deal on these issues.

The ТG-20У (or the G-21 or G-22[33]) had a more pro-active stance which classifies it as a proposal making coalition. It formed around an initial group composed of South Africa, Brazil and India. In response to proposals made by the EU and the US on Agriculture in the run up to the Cancњn Ministerial Conference, an alternative framework proposal was developed and signed by 20 countries on 2 September 2003. This alternative framework contained technical proposals for tariff concessions and domestic support cuts and represented the position of the G-22 in the Agriculture negotiations at Cancњn. A. Narlikar summarized the impact of the G-22 coalition using the following words Тhere was a coalition that was capable of making a difference, through the logic of its argument but also the sheer strength of its weightУ. [34]

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