Brussels, 18/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner Pascal Lamy welcomed the outcome of the mini Ministerial Conference - an informal session - that brought together 25 member countries of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) plus the EU 15 in Sydney, on the eve of the weekend (see Europe of 14 November, page 10). The participants, who reviewed the most sensitive or most pressing points of the Doha development agenda in the absence of 100 of their trading partners, succeeded in establishing a common ground on how to solve outstanding problems relating to facilitating access for the most impoverished popultions to essential medicines, particularly in countries lacking sufficient production capacity to deal with AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. For the rest, including agriculture, geographical indications and the environment, Ministers were content to survey informally the different views.
"If the present cycle of negotiations is to characterise effectively the Doha development programme, we should bring to early conclusion the issue of access to medicines;" said Mr Lamy at the conclusion of the discussions. He added: "the obstacle is a decisive one and we have to surmount it." Progress was made in Sydney, he continued, referring to the fact that "Ministers clearly asserted their wish for officials in Geneva to settle the final details before the end of the year." They expressed "widely diverging views" on the basis of a compromise suggested by Mexico, on some of the key points the 146 had agreed to settle by the end of the year in order to make possible the issue of compulsory licences for exports to countries lacking the capacity to produce the essential medicines they need. The consensus, which is limited for now to the "main principles", is likely to make possible an agreement in Geneva on the list of products and illnesses (probably the three mentioned, excluding all others) covered by the Doha declaration, the countries that can export medicines to those that need them and cannot produce them, the destination countries of such deliveries, and the safeguard mechanisms to be introduced to prevent parallel trade and other unlawful trafficking around this exceptional trade. At the conclusion of their discussions, Ministers gave instructions to their Ambassadors in Geneva, who have to wrap up a final proposal on 10 December, within the framework of the WTO TRIPS (intellectual property) Council, report sources in Brussels, adding: "But the devil is often in the details."
Ministers also examined the provisions applying to the special and differentiated regime to which the developing countries aspire so as to guarantee their integration into the world trading system. They agreed on the need for a "package of concrete measures by the end of the year" while making provision to remedy any remaining problems in the framework of negotiations on the relevant chapters of the Doha Agenda. The idea is to have a sort of "early harvest", reports the same source. The 25 consider that special attention needs to be attached in the accession negotiations to candidacies from the least developed countries, by mentioning the necessity of a specific framework and bringing to successful conclusion a number of these negotiations before the Ministerial Conference in Cancun, in September 2003.
Finally, on agriculture, the EU engaged in an educational effort, doubled with an effort of persuasion, while holding an exchange of views with its partners, which once again urged it to show its cards. In anticipation of the deadline of March 2003 for finalisation of the practical arrangements of this particularly complex negotiation (and for access to the market for services and industrial goods), the Ministers agreed to meet in late January or early February in Tokyo.
On the new subjects (notably competition, etc.), things are changing at technical level, but not yet at political level.