Brussels/Geneva, 17/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - "Constructive and conciliating" signals were sent out from Buenos Aires to Geneva this week, by the member countries of the G20-Plus and the African countries, calling for the two heavy-weights of the system- the United States and the EU- to return, in order to take up negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), was the word from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Thursday. Officials from the institution, support for whom has just been confirmed by the 148 members, have just announced a "road map" for the remainder of the Cycle prior to the critical meeting of 15 December, in hope of success where the ministers failed in Cancun, just a month ago… but the Europeans have not yet finished their reflection, and the Americans to expect something "serious", whilst regional and bilateral initiatives are looming or accelerating across the world.
General feeling of urgency to get the Round back on track - new meeting in Geneva on Tuesday
After the declaration from Buenos Aires (see EUROPE of 15 and 11 October, p.14 and 10 respectively), which was co-signed by a dozen members of a G20-plus which is building up defections since Cancun (Costa Rica and Guatemala complaining about the "politicisation" of the coalition against the agricultural subsidies of the rich countries, then Peru and now Thailand), the heads of the delegations of the 148 to Geneva met informally on Tuesday. "They talked in a highly constructive atmosphere, indicating that they will be flexible, and the rhetoric of Cancun had gone", said the WTO spokesperson, Keith Rockwell. All appear ready to support efforts to relaunch negotiations, which are still indefinitely suspended. According to another official source, the voices round the table calling expressly for talks to recommence were those of Mauritius speaking for the group of African countries, Botswana on behalf of the States of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP), and Morocco, Benin and Bolivia.
The Ambassadors have been called back to the WTO headquarters for next Tuesday, for a formal session of the General Council, with an agenda officially avoiding the DDA issue. "They might talk about cotton", said Geneva. But India hopes to formally request the rapid commencement of negotiations. The Chairman of the WTO's decision-making body, the Uruguayan Carlos Perez del Castillo, has already become involved in a series of consultations together with the Director General of the institution, Supachaï Panichpakdi, the first phase of which will focus on the most controversial questions, starting with agriculture. "We will test our options to find middle ground on a framework for modalities" of the planned programme for agricultural trade, he said, according to a source close to the dossier. Then will come cotton, tariff reductions on industrial products and the Singapore subjects, then, in a second "round", officials will try to go into greater detail on negotiations, via an approach that is both "horizontal" and "integrated" (treating different subjects as elements of the same package), he specified.
Bilateral and regional initiatives
From Thailand where they met this week at ministerial level and next week in Summit, the 21 countries of APEC promised to lend their full support to the WTO and the Round, and are apparently preparing proposals to get things moving. At the same time, Thailand hopes to send out to its partners (United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Russia, Mexico, and others) the idea of speeding up the Pacific free-trade zone launched in 1995 in Bogor. "Without any doubt, the Bogor objective must be adjusted, probably brought forward to 2015 for developing countries" from 2020, declared Trade Minister Adisai Bodharamik.
India, for its part, has already signed three bilateral free-trade agreements within the space of a month. These are instruments judged "useful" but "not enough" by the WTO, without a multilateral basis. "Don't forget that such agreements are discriminatory and exclusive. Agriculture as a whole tends to be excluded from them and a great many countries, often the poorest, are not involved", said Mr Rockwell.
No hurry: the Union cannot bear the price for success on its shoulders, says Mr Lamy
- OK, says the Presidency, but let's restart the Round quickly
Whilst waiting for the European Commission's proposals announced for early November (see EUROPE of 10 October, p.14), the European Council of Brussels was to adopt a declaration highlighting the need to get negotiations in Geneva restarted quickly and to conclude "internal" reflections and deliberations. A few days earlier, Pascal Lamy, who, with other members of his team, was taking part in a meeting with NGOs, warned: "It is good to take the lead and we are prepared to do so, but we must not be the only ones to pay the price".
"You can't go on being the leader until your pockets are empty", he added, reminding his interlocutors of one of the great concessions the Union had already made, when it thought the time had finally come to "create a genuine economic and social council". "This was our doctrine, but we have had to give up on it, because we were the only ones defending that position". On each of the issues under discussion on the DDA, "we are trying to make progress towards better architecture. It is not working, and so we are taking another look. Is there anybody round the table today who shares our point of view? Cancun showed that the answer is no", he said. "I saw that there was hesitation- which was largely tactical-not only on the Singapore subjects, but also on the opening up of market access, and those resisting these are also resisting the opening up of their own markets". "We must now try to be certain that the Union's position is shared by its Member States, by our 'constituencies'; do we need to change it, review our defensive/offensive positions on various dossiers? I have my own views on this, but I would rather be sure that they are sufficiently widely shared, and I don't think it's hard to guess: I have been saying this for years", continued Mr Lamy, making it clear that if this is what the Member States want, he would give up the fight for minimum rules, even plurilateral ones, in the WTO on investment, competition, the transparency of public procurement and the facilitation of exchanges (or lightening the load for administration and customs).
"Even if we change our policy, which may well be the case, we would remain convinced that an opportunity has been lost", said Philippe Meyer, who is responsible for the so-called Singapore subjects within the European Commission. On services, Joao Aquiar Machado, chief of unit at the Commission, said that nobody within the negotiations is talking about a moratorium on GATS, for the ten years or so needed to carry out an impact study. "Negotiations are clearly more balanced than during the Uruguay Round, and in many countries, liberalisation has already gone beyond what was discussed in Geneva", he commented, pointing out that most requests for opening addressed to the Union came from developing countries. But, he acknowledged, countries like Brazil, Argentina, and South Africa do not want to give while there is no movement on agriculture.