Brussels, 04/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The preparations for the launch of a new trade round are about to enter the home strait a few weeks ahead of the ministerial meeting in Doha which will be a test of the World Trade Organisation's maturity following the failure of its previous ministerial meeting in Seattle in December 1999 which had been organised in the old format, and badly organised at that. But this week has been given over to preparatory confabulations.
It was in this atmosphere that the Mexican "Mini-Summit" took place last weekend between the 17 main players in the world trade system, who left the meeting feeling that they had all made progress, and the transatlantic couple both felt justified in the optimism they have both been displaying since the beginning of the year (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.9). The 142 countries also met up informally in Geneva this Tuesday in order to assess results and continue to prepare the ground to avoid a new failure at the WTO. The Europeans see the start of a new trade round as the cornerstone of their trade policy and are preparing for their meeting in Bruges where they will be taking stock with their chief negotiator, Commissioner Pascal Lamy, on the position and preparations of the EU. The informal meeting of EU Trade Ministers is being organised by the Belgian Presidency.
Sources close to the Commission stressed on Tuesday that the EU had been in the front line for setting the agenda ever since Seattle and was pleased to see other countries were now lining up behind it. New negotiating themes, which are beginning to hit home (particularly with the North Americans, Latin Americans and some emerging countries), were quoted, such as competition, investment or the environment, although most developing countries still officially qualify these objectives as neo-protectionist and are publicly saying that they are an obstacle to the success of the Doha summit. The same Commission source insisted that it was important to remember that the EU was in the process of preparing for the negotiations and felt that the Mexico meeting had been very positive in terms of creating trust, enabling a frank and honest debate to take place between the great powers and the developing world. The EU source signalled that the meeting had been extremely useful in terms of preparing for a successful launch of a new trade round, which is the EU's main objective, but the areas discussed in Mexico remain complex and much work remains to be done. The most difficult issues surround problems in implementing existing agreements and developing countries want these to be settled as a priority - such as WTO rules concerning antidumping, subsidies, investment, competition and the environment - since there are still a large number of countries which are not yet happy with the situation - and textiles. The key sector of agriculture has to be added to this list of course since all the underlying tensions and disputes come to a head over agricultural issues. In terms of the relation between trade and social issues, the Brussels source felt that a solution was in sight (proposed by the EU), namely setting up a Forum of the WTO and relevant international institutions such as the ILO, to enter into dialogue on the respect of basic working conditions, sustainable development and other areas of interest to developing countries.
The 142 countries still have a few weeks left before they enter the home strait in terms of their preparations. At the end of the month, the WTO Director General, Mike Moore, will put forward the first draft agenda for the trade round, a few days ahead of the WTO's General Council - the final "reality test" before Doha.