Europeans broadly satisfied with Doha agreement, but disappointed with social aspect

Brussels, 15/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - After having fought so strongly for a new multilateral trade round to be launched at the WTO, the various European Union political leaders must be happy with the agreement painstakingly put together on Wednesday (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.7) in the Qatar capital city. Pascal Lamy, the European Trade Commissioner who negotiated in Doha for the EU, said that major progress had been made in moving towards sustainable development. Referring to the Seattle fiasco, he said that they had managed to get the ball rolling again in a more balanced direction between regulation and liberalisation, without abandoning their ambitions to get open markets. His views were echoed by the President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, who stressed in a brief press release that the Ministerial Declaration and the Work Programme decided in Doha. The acting President of the EU Council of Ministers, Guy Verhofstadt, said that he was happy with the agreement since Doha had agreed on an extensive, balanced, global agenda for a new round of negotiations to be launched in January 2002. The President of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, said that she was happy with the agreement on accessing medicine (EUROPE of 14 November, p.7), feeling that the Doha agreements would make it possible to relaunch the trade round taking account of the concerns of developing countries and referring to the environment, which was good news in the current international situation. This general satisfaction is not simply skin deep - Europe had to eat humble pie over the social aspects of international trade, but it can rightly be satisfied with the compromise achieved over the tricky question of agriculture, whereby export subsidies will not be phased out, and progress was made over the environment, investment and competition. The only cloud on the horizon is the "minimum" achieved with regard to social matters, equally regretted by Mr Lamy, Mr Verhofstadt and Ms Fontaine.

In the Doha Declaration, WTO member countries said "We are determined, particularly in the light of the global economic slowdown, to maintain the process of reform and liberalisation of trade policies, thus ensuring that the system plays its full part in promoting recovery, growth and development". They said they would be aiming to "ensure that developing countries, and especially the least-developed amount them, secure a share in the growth of world trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development". "We recognise that under WTO rules no country should be prevented from taking measures for the protection of human, animal or plant life or health, or of the environment at the levels it considers appropriate, subject to the requirement that they are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries where the same conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on international trade". WTO members "agree to undertake the board and balanced Work Programme… to address the challenges facing the multilateral trading system".

• Agriculture. Agriculture negotiations broke the deadlock in the nick of time, with the EU doing its utmost to head off any phasing out of subsidies. "We agree that special and differential treatment for developing countries shall be an integral part of all elements of the negotiations and shall be embodied in the Schedules of concessions and commitments… so as to … enable developing countries to effectively take account of their development needs, including food security and rural development. We confirm that non-trade concerns will be taken into account in the negotiations". "Modalities for further commitments, including provisions for special and differential treatment, shall be established no later than 31 March 2001.
• Services. The Commission said it had fully achieved all its objectives and the negotiations should provide EU companies with considerable commercial outlets. The participants will be presenting their requests for specific commitments by 30 June 2002, and the first bids by 31 March 2003.
• Market access for non-agricultural products. The EU "notes that modalities for the negotiations are to be determined at a later date". The WTO said "We agree to negotiations which shall aim, by modalities to be agreed, to reduce or as appropriate eliminate tariffs, including the reduction or elimination of tariff peaks, high tariffs and tariff escalation, as well as non-tariff barriers, in particular on products of export interest to developing countries. Product coverage shall be comprehensive and without a priori exclusions".
• Intellectual property. Adopting a separate declaration on this subject, the WTO said it agreed to take public health issues into account and said that intellectual property was part of the solution to the current tensions between public health objectives and the interests of private enterprise. The EU said "This text is a major achievement" and reiterated the importance it attaches to the implementation of the TRIPS agreement (on intellectual property) and its link with public health, by promoting both existing medicines and R&D into new medicines. A system will have to be negotiated for notifying and registering indications of geographical origin for wine and spirits by the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference. Ministers also noted that issues relating to the protection of geographical indications for products other than wine and spirits would be dealt with by the TRIPS Council.
• Competition and investment. For the first time ever, the Doha Declaration sets the objective of establishing a multilateral framework on competition policies and also the aim of improving conditions for foreign direct investment world-wide.
• Trade facilitation. The negotiating mandate reflects the essential objective of simplifying customs and related trade procedures, including transit measures. "While the EU would have preferred to start negotiations at once, we have nevertheless an unambiguous commitment to negotiations within the single undertaking of the Round". The scope of the mandate is broad, addressing all the issues relevant to the movement of goods in international trade, including measures for the rapid release of goods at the border.
• Sustainable development and the environment. The Ministerial Declaration covers questions surrounding the precautionary principle and labelling, by confirming member countries' right to pass the measures they see fit in the field of health, safety and protecting the environment. Such issues were taboo only a few years ago, but will now be the subject of negotiations.
• Social standards. WTO members again confirmed their commitment to basic labour standards and cooperation between the WTO and the ILO.

The White House welcomed the Doha Agreement, with a spokesperson for President Bush saying on Wednesday that the agreement had the potential to extend prosperity throughout the world and strengthen the global economy. Satisfaction was also expressed in business circles in Brussels where UNICE, the Union of Industrial and Employers' Federations in Europe, said the agreement was an important step in restoring confidence in the multilateral trade system. The anti-neoliberal globalisation activist, José Bové, said after the Ministerial Conference that an agreement like this was a victory of rich countries over the poor and spelled trouble and frustration for the future.