Brussels, 26/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - During an informal meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Saturday 23 January, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo hailed the positive mood among the ministers from 30 or so developed and developing WTO member countries as regards the future work of the WTO following the Nairobi ministerial conference in December 2015.
The success of the Nairobi conference, which gave rise to an agreement on the end of programmes for subsidising agricultural exports and on disciplines for equivalent measures (such as state trading companies) and for food aid (see EUROPE 11458), shows that “the WTO is back on the map”, Azevedo said at the end of the meeting on 23 January. “People are optimistic about the WTO, and excited to work more closely with the organisation. This was clear throughout my exchanges with governments and businesses in Davos”, he said.
Azevedo noted the emergence of “some important commonalities” in the discussions, beginning with “an openness to talk about the pending issues of the Doha round (Ed: industry and services) and other issues that members want to discuss”. However, “we will need to see openness and flexibility on both substance and process if we are to make further progress”, Azevedo warned. Furthermore, the future discussions will have to be “inclusive”, giving the opportunity to all members to shape the debate - both the private sector and civil society. Given the desire expressed by ministers in Davos to “be more involved in discussions”, “ensuring that the Geneva process has more frequent political guidance would be very constructive”, he said.
Switzerland's secretary of state for the economy, Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, who chaired the meeting on 23 January, welcomed “the openness” shown by the ministers. “We all agree that the subjects not resolved in Nairobi - in other words, the Doha themes of agriculture, and access for industrial goods or services - must be continued”, she said, stating that the question remained of knowing how to proceed, either in the Doha framework or in that of another structure. “We didn't go into detail, but we spoke about the idea of envisaging other approaches”, she added. The ministers also suggested integrating “other themes that have become just as important”, including investment and e-commerce, into the WTO talks.
Presenting the Nairobi results to the European Parliament's international trade committee on Monday 25 January, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström also spoke of the optimism expressed at Davos. “To say that Doha is dead is not very interesting. New approaches need to be envisaged. I met around 30 ministers in Davos. Nearly all were ready to continue with what has been started. There was unanimity on three points: implementing everything that was concluded in Nairobi; continuing to work on the pending issues; and finding new methods of discussion that do not threaten the multilateral discussions, exploring other issues like investment, local content and e-commerce”, Malmström summed up. “We will do our utmost to make progress. We must also examine the issue of public participation. On the new issues, I think we can begin by talking in a smaller group then extending to the multilateral”, she added, saying that the next OECD ministerial meetings in June (in Paris), then the G20 in July (in Shanghai) will enable what has been started to be continued at political level. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)