Brussels, 14/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) needs to review the way it works in order to ensure greater transparency and inclusiveness in the negotiation process for the liberalisation of global trade and to achieve more far-reaching deals than the one concluded at the 10th WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi in December 2015. This is the view of the chair of the European Parliament's international trade committee, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), given in a speech opening the WTO parliamentary conference in Geneva on Monday 13 June.
“We were relieved that in the end it was possible to reach an agreement on many issues that are of great importance, not least for developing countries”, Lange said, while still expressing disappointment that the 162 member countries of the WTO “could not advance more”.
The Nairobi package includes an agreement on the export competition pillar of the agriculture strand of the Doha Round, scheduling the removal of agricultural export subsidies by 2030 and also a package for the least developed countries (LDCs) (see EUROPE 11458).
The process that led to the final decision in Nairobi was, he said, “far from optimal”, particularly if transparency and inclusiveness were to be considered the watchwords in trade talks, he stated, calling on the WTO to “revise the process and working methods to avoid this in the future”.
In his address, Lange shared the experience of the European Parliament which has successfully pushed for greater parliamentary and public access to information on EU bilateral trade negotiations. “Members of the European Parliament today, after hard negotiations, are also able to consult confidential documents. I think this is important for the democratic process in relation to trade and I hope it can serve as a source of inspiration also for others”, he said.
“It is my firm belief that trade negotiations need to be more transparent and more accessible to citizens than has been the case in the past”, Lange stated, voicing the hope that the WTO parliamentary conference would help bring about greater involvement of parliamentarians and the general public in world trade policy.
Some 100 parliamentarians from 57 countries, including a 10-member delegation from the European Parliament, and close to 300 civil society representatives met to discuss the future of the WTO at the organisation's annual parliamentary conference in Geneva on 13 and 14 June (see EUROPE 11571). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)