Brussels, 01/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The 142 countries belonging to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be meeting this week in Geneva to continue with their preparations for the next ministerial conference, on the basis of the package of texts tabled by the president of the general Council, the Ambassador for Hong Kong, Stuart Harbinson, in cooperation with the organisation's Director General, Mike Moore. One of the decisive stages before the Doha meeting is therefore under way. The next will be the meeting that the main actors of the system have scheduled for 13 and 14 October, in Singapore.
EUROPE has reason to believe that the proposed ministerial declaration, often called the "draft agenda", places emphasis on the concerns of developing countries, concerns that it hopes to include in the work of the institution. Six of the eighteen chapters proposed for the next round of talks have been devoted to this: - better integration of small economies into the system; - the indebtedness of developing countries and the less developed countries (LDC); - the promotion of technology transfers; - technical cooperation and the development of their trading capacity; - specific measures in favour of LDC (adoption of the integrated technical assistance framework, etc.); and special and differentiated treatment. The second text submitted to the 142 by Mr Harbinson and Mr Moore is, for its part, entirely dedicated to problems encountered by most developing countries in the context of the implementation of certain agreements and decisions resulting from the previous round of talks, in 1994. On Monday, the General Council began to discuss, informally, around forty immediate and short term actions being envisaged - a consequent softening of certain GATT provisions (with a lengthy chapter devoted to anti-dumping), as well as agreements on agriculture, health and plant health measures, technical obstacles to trade, investment measures linked to trade, subsidies and countervailing measures (GATS), TRIPS (aspects of intellectual property law linked to trade), textiles and clothing, rules of origin). Most could be ratified on Wednesday already by the WTO decision-making body meeting in formal session, specially devoted to this problem, and the remainder, at ministerial level in Doha.
Discussions on the draft agenda itself should begin on Tuesday. EUROPE has reason to believe that the text, presented as a package to read, negotiate and adopt as such, contains operational proposals (on investment and competition), and the tone is deliberately measured, cautious, at times going as far as unresolved wording. This is the case for the most disputed areas, especially agriculture, the usual subject of passion and confrontations on the international trading scene. For this sector references (that remain to be elaborated in the framework of consultations to come up to the rendez-vous of Doha) could be made not only at the deadlines (that do not exist in the framework of sectoral negotiations ongoing in Geneva) and a timetable, but also non-trade concerns, so dear to the Europeans (among others), long-term objectives of agricultural reforms (reductions in aid, market access, farm competition, etc.) and the special and differentiated treatment to reserve for developing countries in that context. Apart from the two above-mentioned chapters on development needs, the other chapters proposed for the future negotiations are the multilateral dispute settlement procedure (a package of unspecified amendments to be finalised by May 2003); the environment (clarifying the trade/environment connection, processing relevant restrictions or trade distortions, safeguards against potential protectionist labelling); services (continuing the launch of the sectoral negotiation currently underway); access to the market for non-agricultural products (aiming to cut and where necessary scrap customs duty, tariff peaks and escalation without excluding any product a priori); intellectual property (multilateral registration system for geographical indications and extending the scope of current protection); e-commerce (work programme and maintaining the practice of not levying customs duties on e-commerce transactions for at least two years); and public contracts (multilateral transparency agreement); facilitating trade and clarifying and amending WTO rules, discipline and procedures). In terms of investment, one of the options aims to set up a multilateral framework of rules (specifying the scope and definition and the dispute settlement procedures between governments, etc) with a view to improving the transparency, stability and predictability of investment flow. The second option is very far-reaching and refers to the continuation of analysis. Likewise for the relation between trade and competition, with no mention - in the most radical option - of a multilateral framework. The document simply mentions a framework including basic principles like transparency, non-discrimination and procedural fairness, cartels, voluntary co-operation and long-term strengthening of the relevant institutions in developing countries. As for social standards, one of the subjects that contributed to the Seattle fiasco (and which still raises heckles in various developing countries), they are hidden away in the preamble.