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GMF, together with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, hosted a distinguished group of developing-country policymakers for two days of talks on the prospects for a pro-development outcome of WTO negotiations. The delegation met different stakeholders in Washington — including U.S. congressional staff, administration officials, think tank representatives, and the media — to increase understanding of each side’s policy goals and to strengthen cooperation on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).   The highlight of the two days was a well-attended public event on how to advance the DDA, held March 6 in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  Freelance journalist and GMF fellow Elizabeth Becker served as moderator and encouraged the visiting guests to speak about their individual countries’ perspectives in trade negotiations.   Faizel Ismail, head of the South African delegation to the WTO, began by outlining four goals for “mainstreaming” development concerns at the WTO: providing real opportunity for developing countries to export their major products, ensuring that the fundamental “rules of the game” for all WTO countries are fair, granting assistance to the least developed countries (LDCs) to build trade capacity and integrate into the multilateral trading system, and strengthening good governance, transparency, and developing-country participation.   Speaking about farm subsidies, Anwarul Hoda, a leading Indian trade expert, pointed out that domestic and export supports for agricultural products bring down world prices and therefore undermine the ability of developing-country exporters to enter third-country markets.  Combined with the volatility of international commodity markets, OECD farm subsidies have made it difficult for India to lower its own barriers to trade in agricultural products, he said.  Mr. Hoda also said that movement on the services agenda and political leadership are important in making a breakthrough in the Doha round.   Least developed countries (LDCs) have increased their share of global trade over the last decade, but they still account for less than 1 percent, according to Debapriya Bhattacharya, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Bangladesh.  It is crucial to provide LDCs with preferential market access as a window of opportunity while average tariffs come down, he said.  Mr. Bhattacharya urged the United States to join European countries, Canada, and Australia in giving LDCs full duty-free and quota-free market access.   Kaliopate Tavola, Fiji’s minister of foreign affairs, external trade, and sugar, further stressed that trade preferences are critical to some fragile and distinct commodity sectors in the developing world.  The sugar and textile sectors in Fiji, for example, are unable to compete in global markets without special preferences; however, the sugar industry alone accounts for 25 percent of employment in that country.  He therefore called attention to preference erosion and helping small economies meet adjustment challenges, even as Fiji values a multilateral approach to trade rules.   Finally, Mario Matus, the Chilean ambassador to the WTO, described Chile’s success in linking trade liberalization with economic growth.  He credited the growth to the government’s decision in the 1980s to open the Chilean economy by eliminating domestic subsidies, simplifying the tax system, reforming institutions, and significantly reducing tariffs.  Poverty in Chile has since been reduced by half.  In addition, Mr. Matus warned that without progress in the Doha round of trade negotiations, countries may over-tax the WTO’s dispute settlement process and pursue bilateral instead of multilateral trade deals.