On Tuesday 14 November, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström strongly criticised the dangerous position of the USA with regard to the multilateral trading system. She was speaking ahead of the 11th WTO ministerial conference in Buenos Aires on 10-13 December, and particularly criticised the US blockage on the renewal of the WTO's appelate body.
"This is a critical moment for the WTO. A strong multilateral trading system with the WTO at its centre is very much in the interests of the EU and the world. It is the best way to deal with international trade issues and it is now being seriously challenged", Malmström told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
"Both central features of the WTO – its negotiating and its dispute settlement – are under severe pressure for the moment. The prospects of a negotiated outcome still remain highly uncertain. Preparations for the conference (in Buenos Aires) are significantly affected by the situation surrounding the appelate body where the unprecedented decision of the United States to block the appointment of new members puts at risk the functioning of one of the most important and well-functioning elements of the WTO", Malmström stated.
"We are ready to discuss possible concerns regarding the appelate body, but we cannot and we will not accept measures which weaken it or put its independence into question", she warned.
Malmström called on the WTO countries to keep up the "positive momentum" of the two previous WTO ministerial conferences – in Bali in 2013 (where an agreement on trade facilitation was concluded) and in Nairobi in 2015 (where an agreement on agricultural export competition was concluded) – "to obtain concrete results" in Buenos Aires.
"The EU is working very hard in Geneva with other countries and we have taken the leadership in preparing such outcomes by tabling texts in several key areas. Unfortunately, the divergences among the members are still strong", she said.
The EU "supports" an agreement on public stock-holding for food security and fishery subsidies, but "it has to be part of a broader package", in particular, including e-commerce, domestic regulation in services and new transparency rules benefiting SMEs, Malmström said.
Together with Brazil and other WTO members, the EU has tabled a "proposal for a comprehensive solution" addressing domestic support in agriculture and public stock-holdings. "However, there are other proposals on the table reflecting unrealistic ideas that are not boding well for a substantial outcome in agriculture", she warned.
Malmström also said that the EU was "ready to engage in discussions on this (WTO reform), but we need to see concrete proposals on what precisely such reforms would entail".
In addition, she spoke of the EU's support to WTO work on trade and gender, and of the EU's support to the declaration on trade and women’s economic empowerment that will be adopted on the sidelines of the conference.
The chair of the European Parliament's international trade committee, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), also deplored that "one or two countries are ready to sabotage the WTO system", and said it was "scandalous that the US is trying to challenge this system by not nominating judges for the appellate body and by refusing to plan for concrete progress in the Buenos Aires negotiations and put a text on the table". (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)