Hong Kong, 15/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - Following the many bilateral talks between the different negotiating groups and/or trading powers that succeeded each other throughout the day Thursday, a new Green Room chaired by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy is to continue late into the night, its main objective being to reach a consensus on the arrangements for a “development package” in favour of the developing countries. During the similar meeting during the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the Zambian trade minister and spokesman for the LDC, Dipak Patel, made a firm call for “duty free, quota free” market access to developed countries and to emerging countries able to do so, without exemption for countries or products. In his statement, Mr Patel mainly stressed that any limits would mean that the most vulnerable countries would have to agree to allow developed countries to choose which products they would be ready to give duty free/quota free access to the market, which would allow the wealthy countries to draw up a list that would “exclude most of the products that the LDC have any interest in exporting”. Mr Patel was, moreover, opposed to any form of exemption for countries or products that would divide the group of LDC. Two countries in particular were targeted by the Zambian minister: the United States, whose Trade Representative, Rob Portman, was “very irritated”, Community sources say, by the tone used by the Zambian minister; and Japan. The Americans mainly hoped there would be an exemption for one LDC, Bangladesh, and for one product, textiles, especially processed cotton, while the Japanese were sensitive about rice, sugar and leather. Speaking at the press conference, Mr Portman pointed out that Washington would not agree to Bangladesh textiles being “over competitive” compared to American textiles. The LDC's request immediately received the support of the Union which was a precursor in the matter of duty free/quota free market opening to LDC with its initiative “Everything But Arms” launched in 2001, but it also received the support of Switzerland, which was highly defensive about agricultural products and a leader of the net G10 importer countries, as well as large emergent countries of the G20, with India and Brazil in the lead.
With multilateral talks getting bogged down over the major Doha Round chapters - agriculture, industry and services - negotiations are now focusing on the “development package”. “We must now find a method for delivering market access without customs duties and without quotas to LDC”, Mr Patel explained on Thursday afternoon at a joint G90 press conference. The “development package is a major component of the Doha Round. But the development aspect of the Round must be more than just market access. It must include questions of cotton, erosion of preferences, raw material prices, services, special and differentiated treatment and less than total reciprocity for developing countries other than the LDC that will be taking part in the generalised lowering of customs duties”, the Egyptian minister and spokesman for the African Union, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, said. A little earlier, WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell had been very clear about the expectations of this third night of discussion, saying: “Negotiators must rapidly come to an agreement and tomorrow (Friday) will perhaps be too late. We must begin to amend the text of the final declaration”, he told EUROPE, stressing that the talks would be essentially geared to the definition of the sensitivities of developed countries. Speaking that morning, European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson promised to double efforts on Thursday evening to seek to reduce the differences between the LDC, the United States and Japan (which, Community sources say, had shown greater “flexibility” on the question of its sensitive products on the initiative for duty free/quota free market access).
Seeking to demonstrate their generosity towards the most vulnerable countries, and after having been named and shamed on Wednesday evening during the plenary ministerial session debate on cotton, the United States nonetheless announced on Thursday that it would be doubling its contribution to the “aid to trade” package, which is an integral part of the “development package”. Washington's contribution will therefore amount to $2.7 billion in 2010. On Tuesday, the Union had pledged EUR 2 billion and Tokyo an allocation of $10 billion over 3 years (last Saturday). On the question of cotton, another sensitive “priority” issue integrated in the development package, Rob Portman announced on Thursday morning to the press that the United States was ready to “offer duty free access to cotton” to the African C4 producer countries (Benin, Mali, Chad, Burkina-Faso) which threatened on Wednesday to block any agreement in Hong Kong if their demands were not met (see EUROPE 9089). According to sources close to the G90, it is, however, not certain that this gesture will suffice for rallying to a possible agreement in Hong Kong on the “development package” given that “it is mainly the subsidies that Washington pays to its cotton producers that penalise them”. On Thursday evening, intense discussion was continuing on the question of cotton in the context of an internal consultation process and the members of the WTO were still expecting a new progress report.
Furthermore, the Union, but also Switzerland, were again accused on Thursday of blocking negotiations on the main chapters of the Doha Round talks.
particularly on setting a date for scrapping export subsidies. The EU wants to see its export subsidy pledges matched by similar moves from other rich farm export countries on export subsidies and disguised aid, but is balking at the 2010 deadline suggested by Washington. On Thursday morning, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson came in for fierce criticism from Australia's trade minister (and deputy prime minister) Mark Vaile on state trading farms that the European Commission accused of providing subsidies to Australian farmers (as happens in Canada and New Zealand). Vaile said the way Australia's public trading companies operate is transparent and none of their business is export subsidies that could impact on global prices. A little later, Bob Portman said the US was prepared to tackle the issue of export credits but denied that food aid created trade distortions, adding that it was vital for helping the poorest countries suffering from famine. Later, Mandelson told reporters that the EU would not be making any unilateral concessions. At a press conference, G20 leaders Kamal Nath of India and Celso Amorim of Brazil upped pressure on Europe, arguing that it was a simple political decision to set a 2010 deadline and this, even in brackets, would be a serious indication of the EU's desire to make progress. Amorim slammed the EU for using the false argument of strict parallels to justify its failure to budge. Argentinean politician Alfredo Chiarradia said the talks could go on for ages and called on the EU to set a date as soon as possible so as to have a better lever for negotiating with the United States.
Talks among banana producers on the fringes of the Summit this week (not officially part of the Doha Trade Round) came up in the full Summit meeting on Wednesday night. Honduras' trade minister Mario Jimenez called on his counterparts to slam the EU's new banana tariff system, warning that he might refuse to sign an agreement at Hong Kong. Latin American sources suggested on Thursday that Honduras had the moral support of Nicaragua and Venezuela in this.