Brussels, 12/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - At the end of the third economic session within the Asem Forum, on Tuesday, European Commissioner Pascal Lamy welcomed the "Hanoi spirit" that enabled European and Asean trade ministers to adopt a joint declaration in favour of the launch of a new round d of negotiations in Doha (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.10). The few disagreements that nevertheless remain are "quite normal at this stage of the process", he said, acknowledging that work still remained to be done to make a success of the next ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation.
"People demonstrated their desire to understand each other and to break deadlocks so as to reach a consensus on the priority we all grant to the launch of a new round within the WTO in Doha", Mr. Lamy indicated. He in particular welcomed the "frankness and openness of discussions, the mix of common sense and flexibility" and the constructive attitude within Asem, which he compared to the atmosphere that reigned in Mexico, at the "mini-summit" of 1 September last (see EUROPE of ¾ September, p.9 and 5 September, p.12). According to him, all participants backed the WTO and the planned round, and that for two systemic reasons, which are: the fact that the multilateral path is, by far, the best one to carry out trade liberalisation based on rules, and the current economic context.
In their joint declaration, European and Asian ministers expressed their political will and flexibility in view of strengthening support in favour of the launch of a new Round in the framework of the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha. To achieve a consensus on the launch of a Round, ministers agree that the negotiating agenda will have to be sufficiently broad and balanced to reflect the interests and concerns of all members of the WTO. The Round "will have to encompass pursuit of liberalisation, the improvement, strengthening and development of WTO rules".
At this session, Commissioner Lamy also expressed the "unanimous backing for Vietnam's accession to the WTO". Hanoi's candidacy "is backed and shouldered by the EU", he said, at the end of talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, Vu Khoan. "They take this very seriously" and "realise that with China entering, and the current world (economic) growth, they have a window of opportunity that they must use", he considered.