Brussels, 18/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - Despite "substantial differences", the Union and the United States reached a fair level of convergence on the agenda of the next round of talks on liberalisation of world trade, said European Commissioner Pascal Lamy and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, after a meeting in Washington, on Tuesday. The G-7 leaders will, this weekend in Genoa, personally confirm their firm commitment to launching this round this autumn in Doha, said the US official.
Europeans and Americans are seeking to propose "clear" objectives for this venue by sketching out, together, the contours of an agenda that reconciles the essential interests of different WTO members and which allies public support, say the two leading negotiators. Mr Zoellick pointed out a new flexibility on the part of the United States on "several new issues" on the negotiating table, thus going beyond the objective to enlarge market access, to which Washington had previously given preference. "We have reached a high degree of convergence in our positions" in many areas such as trade facilitation, public procurement transparency, market access for non-agricultural products, services and the strengthening of the WTO system", he said. He also spoke of significant progress on other, more controversial issues, mainly three of the new subjects emphasised by the EU: - investment, that the United States is still hesitant about negotiating at multilateral level, although it promises not to "bar the way" to consensus between other countries, that is, the multilateral approach proposed by their European partner; - competition: they conceive the "importance" of promoting accession to the main fundamentals of transparency, non-discrimination and procedural equity, as well as the modernisation of competition policies in the world, but remain sceptical about the settlement of disputes by the WTO in this field; - environment, that must be safeguarded while removing the risk of protectionism, but Washington will "ensure that the Round does not upset the important role" played by the opinion of science in WTO considerations both sanitary and phytosanitary. Agriculture obviously remains a point of divergence for partners and for the many other exporter countries and net importers". Discussions are also to continue on ways of "broaching the WTO" over lager subjects or new ones such as e-commerce, health and social development. "I feel less alone now in this campaign the results of which we shall only see in Doha", said Lamy back in Brussels.