Brussels, 03/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - Discussions between the European Commissioner for trade Pascal Lamy, US representative for trade Robert Zoellick and their Brazilian, Kenyan and South African counterparts on Friday in London (EUROPE 1 May p 9) were "constructive and productive" indicated a US source the following day but admitted that there was little time remaining to obtain an agreement.
The objective of the meeting, for which little information filtered out, was to obtain a common position between "Key WTO countries" in order to deblock the Doha negotiation process that would enable a certain number of issues to be wrapped up by July. The Brazilian foreign affairs minister, Celso Amorim said that the dinner in London had illustrated the difficulties but had also revealed where the solutions could be found. Talks were dominated by the issue of agricultural trade but they also examined possible solutions to the areas of customs duties on industrial products, services, development and the so-called Singapore issues (public procurement, competition, investment, facilitating customs formalities). Celso Amorim indicated at the end of the meeting that the stumbling block was market access for agricultural products. WTO members are divided on the importance of lowering customs duties for the future in this sector and developed and developing countries are opposed on the level of opening up their respective markets to agricultural products. The Brazilian minister was more optimistic about solutions for the Singapore issues on which developing countries, the EU and Japan were seriously opposed last year, which saw the failure of the ministerial conference in Cancun fail. The EU displayed a certain flexibility, underlined Amorim, who adding that the dispute on Singapore issues could be settled on 14 May, a date on which ministers from industrialised and developing countries who went to Cancun could meet in a backdrop to the OECD meeting in Paris. The minister also aid that getting an agreement on a formal for negotiating lower customs duties on industrial products was not an insurmountable problem.
Lamy's main objective in London was to stabilise the position of the G90 (developing countries mainly in Africa and the representative in the British capital of Kenyan trade minister Mukisa Kituyi), which were judged to "heterogeneous" by the EU. The latter said that many G90 members did not understand the importance of Doha Development Agenda negotiations. The European Union is also seeking to assess preferences that G90 countries could obtain from the G20 ("large" developing countries represented in London by Amorim and the South African trade minister Alec Erwin).
On Sunday 2 May, Pascal Lamy also met the Japanese trade and industry minister Nakagawa. Talks focused on issues debated in London. The two men agreed on the need to make substantial progress in the next few weeks on negotiation points still pending since Cancun so agreements can be reached on them in June or July.