TRADE: Future Still Uncertain for New Round of Global Talks

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jul 13 2001 (IPS) - A new round of multilateral trade negotiations is still but a blur on the horizon of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), according to a cautious Stuart Harbinson, chairman of the institution’s General Council.

“We are still far away from any significant convergence of positions,” summarised Harbinson, Hong Kong’s permanent representative before the WTO, and head of preparations for the body’s ministerial conference, slated for this November in Doha, Qatar.

The previous attempt to convene a new round of global talks was a resounding failure in December 1999, during the ministerial conference held in the US city of Seattle.

The industrialised countries – the United States and European Union in particular – are exerting pressure for the launch of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations during the Qatar conference.

The previous such talks, known as the Uruguay Round (1986- 1994), left developing countries deeply disappointed because of the meagre benefits they obtained and because the industrialised nations have yet to fully implement the commitments they made.

These precedents have aligned the WTO’s 141 member nations in two major blocs, with the divisions most evident during debate on establishing the agenda for the Qatar ministerial conference, currently being drafted by the General Council, the maximum authority at the Geneva-based international trade body.

But Harbinson said progress over the last two weeks in drawing up the agenda “has, frankly, not been sufficient.”

The only matter that stirred up consensus was the reduction of industrial tariffs, an issue also known as market access negotiations for non-agricultural products.

A different fate resulted for the revision or amendment of the Dispute Settlement Body, a WTO forum that has come under criticism from developing countries and civil society organisations for some of the rulings it has issued in favour of industrialised nations.

WTO negotiators still differ on how to handle this issue. There are initiatives on the table proposing to discuss the Dispute Settlement question prior to Doha, during the ministerial conference, or as part of the new round of trade talks.

A top trade official stressed that negotiations on agriculture “remain rather difficult” despite the fact that, separately, WTO members have been attempting for more than a year to make progress on reforming the related trade agreement established by the Uruguay Round.

It is on this point that the interests of the Cairns Group – countries with little or no state intervention in the agricultural sector – clash with those of other industrialised countries, primarily in Europe.

The Cairns Group wants the negotiations to take up more ambitious objectives than those established by the Uruguay Round’s Agreement on Agriculture.

But the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Norway – all of which protect their farming sectors with subsidies – only grudgingly accept some of the goals of that accord.

Another sticking point in the efforts toward a new round of talks is the failure to enact certain Uruguay Round treaties, foot dragging that has hurt developing nations.

Among the accords pending implementation is one covering textile production, an area in which the poorest countries stand out for their comparative advantages in production costs.

There is also the debate on anti-dumping, a recourse wielded mainly by industrialised nations to obstruct imports from poor countries with the pretext that they are trading at prices below cost.

Uruguayan trade negotiator Carlos Pérez del Castillo drew up a proposal to jump-start action on the pending matters, and he has won backing from his own country, Argentina, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Thailand.

The initiative, which divides the yet-to-be implemented accords based on their importance and their potential to achieve consensus, has “energized discussions” on a matter that has been bogged down for at least four years, commented the WTO source.

Another bloc of developing nations, known as the Like-Minded Group, which includes Cuba, Honduras, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Dominican Republic and Uganda, among others, has tagged the Uruguayan proposal as “insufficient”, but acknowledged that it serves as “a starting point for discussions.”

Meanwhile, the “Quad” – consisting of the United States, European Union, Japan and Canada – reacted to the initiative saying that it goes too far.

The WTO General Council will take up the matter of implementing pending Uruguay Round accords at a special session July 20.

Harbinson and WTO director-general Mike Moore announced that they would draft a document on implementation and would include suggestions for routes toward consensus.

The General Council is also scheduled to meet July 30-31 to define the agenda for the Qatar ministerial conference, and to discuss the new round of talks in particular. Harbinson said “there will be a reality check” among the delegates about progress toward the negotiations.

He stressed that, in light of the experience in Seattle, “anyone who thinks we can put (the agenda) together at the last moment is living very dangerously indeed.”