Making proposals

It is generally accepted that the first one making a proposal acquires an advantage because he defines the basis on which the discussions will be conducted. All the other actors will define themselves against this initial proposal, and they will have to master the substance and process of the negotiations to be able to make an alternative proposal substantially different from the one that is on the table. DCs and LDCs are subject to two main constraints that force them most of the time to work on the basis of the proposals made by their industrialized partners:

б The asymmetric distribution of bargaining power between developed and developing countries makes it very difficult for DCs and LDCs to promote actively their strategies and own framework proposals;

б DCs and LDCs do not always have the expertise to put forward rapidly an alternative proposal to the one presented by developed countries.

However, right before the Seattle Ministerial Conference, DCs successfully presented a Тpositive agendaУ for the negotiations putting together the subjects and modalities of interest to them. More recently, the developing countries part of the G-20 coalition or the ТCairns GroupУ have contributed to the presentation of a framework proposal for the agriculture negotiations.

The ability to bring forward a detailed proposal is closely related to the capacity to define oneХs priorities and interests in the negotiation. This stage is crucial for a developing country already faced with an unequal distribution of bargaining power in the negotiation. In NAMA or services negotiations, DCs and LDCs have made their own proposals.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20