The Fourth Ministerial Conference was held on 9th to 13th November 2001 at Doha, the capital of Qatar. It is popularly known as the “Doha Development Round” for incorporating what is called the “Doha Development Agenda”.
It specifically and repeatedly recognised the special needs of the poorer countries and the steps to be taken for realising their sustainable economic development.
The Declaration mandated negotiations on a wide range of subjects and implementation of the already existing agreements. It reaffirmed its commitment to the principles of multilateral trade, harmonious domestic policies and transparency in international trade.
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It declared that these principles were necessary prerequisites for tackling the problems of developing and least developed countries. The Declaration asserted that challenges faced by the poorer countries could not be met by measures taken in the field of trade alone.
Having reiterated at length its concern about the need for sustainable economic development of backward countries and the type of special treatment which they should get, it reaffirmed its commitment to the rule-based and transparent trading system with corresponding domestic economic policies and appended to this a “Work Programme” covering a large number of areas.
In most areas, it talked about further negotiations and commitments as also the justification of a greater policy freedom to the poorer countries.
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It created a committee on trade and development, assisted by a sub-committee on least developed countries, for looking into special needs of the developing countries.
The responsibilities of this committee included implementation of the agreements, technical cooperation, and an increased participation of developing countries in the global trading system.
However, the Doha Declaration also stuck to those issues which, in the view of the developing countries, are biased against them. For example, it reaffirmed its commitment to the Singapore Issues as also matters like internationally recognised core labour standards.
It took steps to monitor the progress of negotiations on these issues. However, WTO failed in ensuring implementation of the commitments by developed countries.