Brussels, 04/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - The failure of the Geneva meeting, attended on 29 June- 1st July by around thirty WTO trade ministers, in an attempt to reach a compromise on modalities (figures and other provisions) for the liberalisation of agriculture and manufactured goods (NAMA), has engendered a great deal of disappointment and frustration.
During a press conference on Monday in Helsinki with the president of the European Council, Matti Vanhanen, the president of the Commission José Manuel Barroso regretted that “no breakthrough was possible” at the Geneva meeting. He added that, “We all need this round to succeed. And to get that, there must be an agreement on the main numbers, in a matter of weeks, not months. That means agreement on real cuts in agricultural and industrial tariffs and effective cuts in trade distorting agricultural subsidies. That is what Europe is offering…Europe will continue to be constructive in the consultations which Pascal Lamy is undertaking. Everyone needs to do the same, be constructive, work for real cuts and for a round which truly supports development”. Mr Barroso also called on the US to make new efforts on domestic support and for emerging countries (G-20) to make more concessions on industrial tariffs and opening up their services markets. He concluded that, “To make multilateralism work, everyone must play their part. Europe has given more than anyone else to this round, we must see other contribute as well”.
Visibly frustrated by the fact that discussions on agriculture and manufactured goods are blocking any progress on other negotiations chapters, particularly services, the Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, said, nevertheless, that he was pleased last Saturday at the end of the Geneva meeting with the stock taking results on services negotiations, attended by around twenty ministers. Mr Mandelson explained to the press that this “was one of the few positive parts of the largely fruitless conference”. He also affirmed that ministers had largely concentrated on the “can-do elements than on the red lines”. Multilateral negotiations on services, in which around only forty member countries participated, are determined by a system of exchanging individual countries' requests (from one country to another) or collectively (by one group of countries to another group) with regard to market access and “offers” deciding the level of reciprocity of a country or group of countries that are prepared to agree. Following the timetable agreed on last December in Hong Kong, the last requests were submitted at the end of February, while revised offers will have to be on the table by the end of July. Afraid that liberalisation of their services markets will be to the benefit of aggressive competition from rich countries and the price to pay for a broad reform of agriculture in developed countries, many developing countries are still less than enthusiastic about revising their offers even further. Hamid Mamdouh, director of services at the WTO told the Financial Times on 4 July that “progress in the agricultural talks will undoubtedly have an impact and slow down services”. He also underlined the frustration of the European and US services sectors with the fact that discussions on agriculture, which only represents 2% of their economies is slowing down negotiations on a section that accounts for 70% of their economies.
On a visit to Brazil, the British foreign affairs minister, Margaret Beckett said that she was “deeply disappointed” by the Geneva failure and called for another gesture to be made from the EU on agriculture to unblock the situation. Ms Beckett asserted that the key to the agreement is clear, the Union has to allow more competitive countries greater access to its agricultural market. She welcomed the signs of flexibility conditional on agricultural access, given by Mr Mandelson. Ms Beckett also indicated that she would suggest to Brazilian president Lula that he organises a meeting as part of the Saint Petersburg summit (15-17 July) of Heads of State and governments from G-8 and G20 counties (South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Mexico) to give a political boost to WTO negotiations.
In the US they are afraid that an agreement will not be concluded before the expiry of the negotiation mandate given by the US Congress to the American government. The Trade Promotion Authority, President Bush and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan agreed on Monday evening during a telephone conversation that Doha negotiations were at a “critical stage” and that their “success” was a “priority”. The Americans have not really appreciated being in the dock in Geneva or having developing countries refusing to grant US products greater access and vigorously demand reductions from them in domestic support. The influential senator from Iowa and president of the finance committee (in charge of international trade), Chuck Grassley, said that he was “disappointed” by the Geneva results but was pleased that the Representative for Trade, Susan Schwab, had stuck to her position on market access.