Brussels, 25/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The statements made by Keith Rockwell, WTO spokesman (see yesterday's Europe, p. 13) before the press on Monday on the need to launch a new WTO Round in Doha with realistic ambitions, were broadly shared by Anthony Gooch, spokesman for Commissioner Pascal Lamy.
Like Rockwell, Mr. Gooch recalled that, for close to two years, the Union was the main promoter of the launch of a new "round" and now hoped to gather the fruit of its efforts. He said that progress had been made concerning both implementation of WTO rules and anti-dumping rules. As for the environmental issues, Pascal Lamy's spokesman noted that there was now better understanding between the EU and the United States, the latter better perceiving the concerns of Europeans regarding the will to apply the precautionary principle. "We must therefore continue to work and reconsider a situation that does not satisfy us", declared Gooch, remarking that trade rules and those governing the environment at international level were in contradiction in many aspects: "There is a grey area between these two corps of rules. We'd like to clarify relations between trade and the environment", he recalled. Regarding competition, Anthony Gooch declared that one of the signals the EU had sent out to countries that have doubts as to whether or not the issue should be broached was that it was above all a question of discussing basic principles, it being understood that many countries do not even have rules of competition. Minimalist approach too regarding foreign direct investments in some parts of the world where these investments were not going; It is, is what the spokesman declared in substance, a question of bringing on board these peripheral regions in the globalisation process, but only if they so wish. Finally, speaking of the delicate issue of farm subsidies, Gregor Kreuzhuber, spokesman for the Commissioner for Agriculture, Frans Fischler recognised that the challenge was to find common ground in Doha and rejected any maximalist stance. As for the accusations of protectionism levelled at Europe, notably in the GMO sector, Mr. Kreuzhuber stressed that the EU was a demander of clear and precise multilateral rules concerning the activation of the precautionary principle, in the sense that it can even be the subject of abusive activation of this principle. He then cited the number of recent cases where third countries gave closed their doors without real justification to European farm production.
Although the WTO and the EU agree on the need to launch a new Round in Doha, still remains to know if the WTO ministerial meeting will be held in Qatar on the scheduled date of 9 to 13 November. Many capitals are said to have asked for it to be postponed, especially if the United States undertake military action in the region. On this, the former Thai Minister Supachai Panitchpadic, who will succeed Mike Moore at the head of the WTO told Reuters that the attacks on New York and Washington risk rendering the launch of a new round more difficult, but that it was all the more necessary because of the events, that threaten to worsen the slow-down in the world economy.