Brussels, 04/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting under the auspices of the EU on 4-5 June, the G7 leaders of the world's industrial powers (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA) will reaffirm their commitment to the multilateral negotiations of the WTO's Doha round, stressing the need quickly to implement the Bali package that was tied up at the ministerial conference in December 2013, and to develop a work programme for the follow up of the negotiations. The work programme is still immense - the 159 WTO member countries now have to come to an agreement on the three most sensitive issues of agriculture, market access for industrial products, and services. WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo from Brazil is not letting up on the pressure to obtain results by the end of the year.
At the meeting of the WTO General Council on 12 May, Azevedo asked the member country ambassadors to prepare for a very busy period before the summer break. He has two priorities. The first is to implement the Bali package “as quickly as possible”. This is a package of ten negotiated texts tying up a partial agreement on the Doha round. The key focus of this historic mini-agreement (the first multilateral agreement since the creation of the WTO in 1995) is an agreement on trade facilitation. This agreement is based on a package of binding rules to simplify and ease customs procedures, and thus facilitate trade flows so as to inject up to another US$1 trillion into the world trade system. The Bali package also includes a development packet and get back on the right track on the agricultural section of the Doha round - including a decision on public stocks for the purposes of food security (see EUROPE 10980).
Azevedo's second priority is to implement a work programme to conclude the Doha round. This requires tying up an agreement on the three most sensitive issues of the negotiations. “The substantive work must now begin. I have good hope of having results by the summer break in August. The second half of the year should be given over to more specific issues, and indeed to tackling other themes linked to the Doha agenda. On this point there is no precise timetable - just the end date of December 2014”, he said in an interview with Swiss daily newspaper Le Temps on 4 June.
The member countries are having particular trouble in coming to an agreement on the method for continuing the negotiations on the agricultural chapter. This chapter contains three pillars - market access, domestic support, and export competition. The member countries disagree on whether to use the draft modalities, a 100-page document developed in December 2008 (see EUROPE 9664), which sets out the formulae for reducing import duties, for domestic support and for export subsidies. Many WTO members consider this text to be the basis for completing the round on the agricultural section, and do not want to amend it at the risk of watering down a possible agreement. Other countries, like the USA, express doubts about this approach, stating that the situation of agriculture has greatly changed since then. The EU accepts this text as a reference document but believes that its different elements do not enable a compromise to be made fairly in current times.
Azevedo nevertheless remains confident of obtaining results by December. “If we manage to complete a preliminary roadmap successfully, things should follow on quickly. I don't want to put forward a more precise time schedule. I simply commit to picking up the pace, adjusting some of the parameters of the negotiations as needed”, he said in Le Temps. “I don't believe in miracles but I have faith in hard work. As Director General I can help complete the last metres of the field - but it's up to the states to take responsibility for playing the game by bringing the ball right up to the goal line”, he concluded (our translation). (EH)