Brussels, 14/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - A WTO agreement on 50% will be possible in July, said European Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy, speaking in Paris on Wednesday lunchtime, after the OECD ministerial meeting (see other article). This optimism is shared by most of those taking part in the meeting that afternoon for a WTO "mini-ministerial". "I think that everybody round the table is committed to working hard and making progress, and to making the compromises we need to get through 50% of the Doha Agenda by July", Mr Lamy told journalists. In fact, after the OECD ministerial, several voices agreed on progress made on the agricultural issues and a quasi-agreement on the Singapore subjects.
On agriculture, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, who chaired the OECD meeting, said: "There are encouraging signs but a great deal of work to be done on the three pillars (export subsidies, domestic support and market access) to reach a point where a balanced agreement is possible". Concerning export subsidies and domestic support, Pascal Lamy said the EU was a "visible architecture" and stressed that it was ready, on the question of market access, to consider any new solution, within the limits of its legitimate interests. His colleague for agriculture, Franz Fischler, specified that it was necessary to determine a single joint approach taking into consideration the necessary differentiated treatment to be reserved for developing countries, while not losing sight of the ambitions of the Doha Agenda on substantial improvement to market access. European sources, moreover, saw "positive signs" on the American side on the question of abolishing export subsidies, while the G20 countries (emerging countries) noted positive signs in the latest European declarations.
On the Singapore issues, Mr Derbez felt an agreement was "emerging" among WTO members, which was something Pascal Lamy confirmed. The Doha Round would be limited to negotiation on trade facilitation, shunting the transparency of public markets, investment and competition onto a siding. The European Trade Commissioner regretted this was the case but said it was necessary to remain "lucid at this stage if we wish to move forward".
Finally, with a view to the WTO mini-ministerial meeting opening in the afternoon, WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi addressed the members of the Organisation in these terms during the OECD ministerial: "What we need during our meeting today is a message of confidence and strong resolve, without ambiguity, to reach the framework agreements by July". We recall that the aim is to find, before July, the broad lines of a compromise in order to reach a detailed agreement, with figures, on the various points of the specifications established when the Doha Round was launched in 2001.