Brussels / Basel, 19/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - "The multilateral network is sound in the face of the threat of destabilisation, and if it is to be worked on it will be for further strengthening, continuing to change globalisation, a de facto reality, into a rule of law", said European Commissioner Pascal Lamy, speaking before the European Parliament's Committee on Industry and Foreign Trade. The Union's trade policy thus remains on track for opening a trade round in Doha, "strong action", that Mr Lamy more than ever believes necessary to accompany the "general opening of our economies to developing countries" and, more specifically in the Mediterranean, to accelerate all negotiations being conducted in the region.
The Commissioner said he essentially felt the mass attacks that hit the Americans last week have projected us all into a more dangerous world and that, in the field of trade, these risks should be reduced with any tools that are available. He felt that trade, as a tool for development, is "one of the weapons for making peace". On 11 September, he declared, the "political, economic and social security of our world, and yours, was hit". He went on to say that "our response must be through greater political and economic, social and cultural security. Do not Europeans realise that this response can only be a collective one?". According to Mr Lamy, risks can be described in: i) economic terms by new uncertainties and new fears which are an extra burden weighing still more heavily on our depressed global economic situation, as well as the consequences for trade of the inevitable tightening of controls on the movements of persons, goods and capital"; ii) political terms, through the "horrific price of innocent victims" who have just paid for "one of the democracies established in modernity" while "in the Arab world, which is close to us, and more broadly in countries where the Muslim confession dominates (…), the real aim of terrorists is to destabilise and divide governments in order to cause a split between two worlds that those behind the attacks are desperate to antagonise".
At bilateral level, the Commissioner does not see any other response than to "accentuate our availability and our openness" towards developing countries, mainly because "the greater the military or security pressure, and it will be, the greater the risk of resentment will be, and it will, and the more we shall have to work for generous opening of our economies to the LDC". Regarding geographical priorities, he believes the urgent thing is to step up efforts to give more concrete content to relations with countries belonging to our close Mediterranean neighbourhood and to accelerate all the negotiations that are being conducted in the region. His opinion is that "controlled trade access accompanied by political, economic and social modernisation, with anchoring to the multilateral system through WTO membership all those who are not yet members are priorities along the lines of stability and security".
The Commissioner, however, does not believe it is appropriate to review the aims of common trade policy, nor its priority or its "multilateral" timetable. "We must work to keep the multilateral meeting in November, in Doha, not through obstinacy, not because nothing has changed but for political reasons, because dialogue and negotiation between States or entities having the rule of law in common is a powerful message. This feeling is shared by the WTO Director General and by my American counterpart. Of course, we must still collect the stances of many other members of the WTO. I shall deal with this over the next few days", he said.
Due to terrorist pressure, the meeting of the "142" in Doha appears, in his view, to be all the more "indispensable" as "we would be sending a negative signal if we were, today, to slow down the multilateral negotiations". As Mr Lamy sees it, the debate, which began last week in Geneva, and which was cut short by Mr Moore, has nothing political about it. The only question that could possibly be put, in this case to the Qatar authorities, is that regarding the security and logistical guarantees that they are able to provide, when the time comes, said the Commissioner a little later. As to content, the system is indeed adversely affected by "consequences that will be very strong in a number of areas" but the response must be collective and constructive. It must include continued preparations for the IVth Ministerial WTO Conference. The European effort to convince and clarify on the subject of the remaining points of disagreement - essentially agriculture, the environment, competition and investment, implementation and anti-dumping rules - should also be continued. Pascal Lamy, whose mandate has become far more flexible since Seattle, will not, however, give up environment, investment and competition. "It doesn't cost anyone anything. This has been confirmed by many ministers I have met", he said, describing these new subjects as "purely systemic" and recalling the latitude that he now has for
to go towards meeting developing countries on important issues for them, such as implementation of existing agreements. Since the deadlock in Seattle, he is in quest of the "smallest common denominator", while trying to convince others that the WTO and durability may go hand in hand and that the institution is in a position to counter any attempt at "neo-protectionism" through demands such as proportionality, predictability, transparency, and the review of rules. The forthcoming entry of China in the WTO will not fundamentally alter things in the hypothesis of a new round but will "probably have an impact on ties within ASEAN". "They realise that that were they to manage to set up a market, that is flexible, in their own way, it would not be a bad thing and they would do it", he considered, stating that, following his recent trip to the region, there was "a commitment along these lines, on their side". In addition, promises made by Beijing to Community negotiators concerning the insurance sector "suit me perfectly", he said, referring to the concrete decisions that the Chinese will have to take regarding licence allocation. "They assured us that we would not have a more favourable treatment", he said, while recalling that in case of a breach of a commitment "between now and then", the dispute settlement procedure could always be activated.