Brussels/Geneva, 23 /05/2003 (Agence Europe) - In spite of the efforts made to revitalise the negotiations on the development agenda in Doha and to lighten those in Cancun, the 147 member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) look as if they are going to fail in their next meeting, set for 1st June to adopt the procedures of tariff and non-tariff reductions for import of industrial goods. The suggestions made by the Swiss ambassador, Pierre-Louis Girard, who is conducting the discussions on this particularly sensitive subject for developing countries, are generally considered to be too ambitious or not sufficiently so. The philosophy is right, say the Europeans, always prudent because "the devil is in the detail".
The project finalised last weekend by Mr.Girard is based on a unique so-called "Swiss" formula, for the reduction of the customs duties in all non-agricultural sectors and elimination, in three stages, of "all the customs duties on products which are of special interest to export for developed and least advanced countries ". Seven categories are identified: clothing and textiles, shoes, products made of leather, electric and electronic goods, fish and fish products, stones and precious metals, components and spare parts of motorised vehicles. This negotiation stumbles especially on the reserves of the developing world, where the peaks and tariffs are legion, to authorise the sometimes drastic reductions considered. The Girard document lays down nevertheless more flexible methods of implementation, in particular longer periods to operate the reductions, the suppression of duties on commercially strategic products in this part of the world and the absence of commitments to reduction on behalf of the least advanced countries - which are bound, in exchange to "substantially increase the level of their constraining commitments".
"The bones still need to be fleshed out", as a diplomat of a developing country put it, while another, representing a developing country, sees in this plan "a base for our work, but I really do not believe that anyone hopes to sort this all out by the end of the month".
It was reported from Brussels on Wednesday " positive elements, especially the architecture which is similar to the one we proposed: a unique formula, without exclusion of sectors, including elements for special and differentiated treatment and initiatives by sector - where one could be even more ambitious, going all the way to elimination of tariffs by all members for products which we have identified as corresponding to the interests of developing countries, such as textiles, shoes or leather ". It also considers "very positive the fact that (Mr.Girard) proposes a sort of everything except weapons, i.e. all the developed countries and even the advanced developing countries would give unlimited quantitative access for zero duties to the products from the poorest countries". "We see elements which roughly speaking meet our position, but it remains to work out the details" and in particular how "compression", claimed by Europeans against tariff peaks and rising tariffs, can be operated on this basis, one of them specifies "We have worked a lot with the United States on this issue to now be able to reach an agreement on the methods on May 31" and essentially, there too, "it is not the deadline, but that the debate is started in Geneva and that all the proposals or almost all are in the open", it is said in Brussels. From the American side, the trade representative Robert Zoellick was more or less on the same wavelength, while regretting the same day in Washington "frankly, that the project is not as ambitious as we would like it".