Brussels/Geneva, 15/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - After many long months of negotiations, interspersed with intense consultation around the world, the World Trad Organisation (WTO) met at the highest level in Geneva on Monday in an attempt to break the stalemate over the Doha Development Agenda in a distinctly more favourable and less politically charged environment than in Cancun. But in the absence of any great changes to the stances taken by the different parties, the negotiators had to scale back their initial ambitions, with nobody believing it will be possible to get the trade round going again this year. Three months on from the abrupt end of their fifth ministerial summit, the 146 WTO member countries find themselves faced with huge disagreements that they will have to attempt to dissolve by giving ground and thrashing out agreement in certain areas, as was recently attempted in Brasilia on 12 December by the EU and the G20.
Formally opening the General Council meeting, expected to last until Thursday, WTO Director General Supachaï Panitchpakdi said the main collective objective for the day, as set by ministers in Cancun, was to arrive at a point whereby negotiations could get a new lease of life. We haven't achieved this yet, he said, but that should not put us off. Every minister I have spoken to wants to see progress, he went on, hammering home that their collective task was to find a link between political will and concrete progress. Such progress is painfully absent when it comes to farm issues and accessing industrial markets, noted WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell, while the President of the General Council, Carlos Perez del Castillo, welcomed the fact that key questions had become much clearer and possible solutions had also become more visible. He warned that intense negotiations supported by determination and political will to make compromises would be required to find solutions since there was still a large-scale mismatch between proclamations of political will, commitment and flexibility on the one hand, and how this materialises in practice in terms of negotiating positions on the other. On farming, Perez del Castillo said the commitment to scrap all forms of export subsidies would be essential to the success of the negotiations, although some WTO members might find it difficult to make such a commitment at the present moment in time.
Before the WTO meeting, Panitchpakdi and European Commissioner Pascal Lamy - in the absence of their US counterpart Robert Zoellick (who had been invited) - attended a meeting in Brasilia with the G20 countries, described by both sides as a fruitful, positive dialogue. The EU's chief negotiator and the G20 country ministers (including those of Brazil, India and South Africa) were able to explain their own positions, particularly in terms of farming, while the G20 countries confirmed their desire to see an end to rich countries' subsidies. Lamy and his fellow negotiators discussed the need to intensify negotiations at the beginning of next year and make progress as soon as possible towards more intense dialogue between all partners in order to make real and substantial progress in line with the Doha mandate and in the timeframe set out at Doha, noted a common statement.
In Paris on the same day, the Presidents of 32 professional organisations from the main OECD countries highlighted the urgent need to overcome the Cancun failure and relaunch negotiations, stressing the point in a letter drawing attention to the commitment of millions of companies represented by these organisations to multilateral trade. On Monday, Friends of the Earth renewed their appeal for a full and independent examination of the outcome of the previous trade round, for the WTO's expansion to cease by refusing to add new 'Singapore' subjects to the agenda, and sending all negotiations over the environment to the United Nations, which is 'less biaised'. FoE also wants to see a new export policy for farming products focussing on food sovreignty and sustainability. The NGO argued that the WTO cannot continue to add one failed summit after another by failing to deliver what people really need. It is high time, FoE commented, that the EU and the US realise they have to give up their free market agenda motivated by the business world.