Brussels, 24/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - As the World Trade Organisation (WTO) triggers off the final phase in its preparations for the ministerial meeting in Doha, the Union now thinks it can share the feeling of the rest of the international community that the conference will be a success. This was announced, on Wednesday, by the Director-General for Trade at the European Commission, Mogens Peter Carl. European sources specified we are now coming closer to our aim of having questions such as the environment, social issues, competition and investment added to the agenda.
Such optimism mainly springs from the fact that "dynamic news" is palpable and that the process appears to all as being "irreversible". It is also supported by the very consequential warming of the atmosphere across the Atlantic. "It is day and night", it is stressed in Brussels, where there is talk today of "very strong convergence of principle for the vast majority of subjects on the table, and, in terms of substance, on a large number of them".
Nevertheless, there "obviously" remain a few questions, "thorny" to say the least, to settle, sources tell us. Among other things, the Europeans "want the WTO to strongly back the nascent activity within the International Labour Organisation regarding social standards" and that the ministerial declaration refers to "social development", word the mention of which still gets the hackles up certain developing countries. Also remains to be found ground for agreement on agriculture (notably, the goal of export subsidy negotiations and what to do with non-trade concerns), as well as the link to make between trade and the environment and agreements to have emerged from the previous round. For half these requests, it is a question of "interpreting the (existing) rules in a manner that plays in favour of developing countries" - and their interlocutors are already ready to respond to that. But, the other requests, especially those, "very firm, by India" concern anti-dumping, require a "formal modification of these rules and our own rules", which is not possible in a short space of time, even if the will exists on the European side, sources tell us, summarising: "We have already made great progress on what was feasible and shall see in Doha what we can do - the maximum". And stressed that it is not a question of concessions to developing countries, some of which, like India, do not, moreover, show great flexibility on the new subjects. That being so, the European team is for now counting on a short round, a round that would be completed in three years.