TRADE: Ghosts of Seattle Fiasco Raised at WTO

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jul 30 2001 (IPS) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) watched powerlessly Monday as the first deadline came and went for determining whether its proposal for a new round of multilateral negotiations will be included on the agenda of its upcoming ministerial conference.

In May the WTO had ordered an evaluation in three months’ time of the various options available for the ministerial conference, slated for November in Doha, Qatar, the first since the resounding failure of the 1999 meeting in the US city of Seattle.

But the WTO General Council found that deep discrepancies continue to separate the 141 member states when it comes to launching a new round of global talks.

“There is a lack of political will to engage in discussion of the central matters that are blocking more extensive negotiations,” explained Carlos Pérez del Castillo, head of the Uruguayan delegation.

Industrialised countries are attempting to include points in the talks that would allow them to tone down the limitations on market protectionism, which they continue to exercise in sectors like textiles and agriculture, and to uphold measures against disloyal pricing (anti-dumping).

To flesh out the negotiating agenda, the wealthy countries are demanding the inclusion of matters such as competition, investment, environment and labour standards, among others.

Developing countries, meanwhile, prefer to focus the talks on the application of the still-pending promises of previous agreements, such as those involving the agriculture and service sectors.

For example, the Latin American countries in Mercosur (Southern Common Market – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with Bolivia and Chile as associate members) have alerted the WTO that their support for the new round of trade negotiations depends on how the agricultural question is to be handled.

Stuart Harbinson, chairman of the General Council and Hong Kong’s permanent representative to the WTO, acknowledged that “the gaps among positions on key issues remain wide.”

“It is an urgent necessity to narrow these gaps” he warned in the report he presented Monday during what was billed as a “reality-check” meeting of the institution’s member nations.

WTO director-general Mike Moore – like Harbinson an outspoken supporter of the new round of talks – raised the spectre of global economic stagnation with the argument that “recession generally provokes protectionist reactions.”

A new round of negotiations would stimulate the world economy with a contribution equivalent to twice the current economy of China, said Moore.

However, despite such forecasts, Moore recognised that the WTO is far from achieving consensus, which is a decision-making requirement for this international body.

The only point on which some agreement is beginning to appear is a proposal sponsored by Brazil, which wants the ministerial conference in Doha to adopt a political declaration on the regulations involved in the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs).

The European Union and India support the Brazilian initiative, which seeks a pronouncement that prioritises health aspects and access to medications under the TRIPs regime.

The WTO enters a period of near-total shutdown during the month of August, the summer break. Formal discussions are scheduled to pick up again in September, but Moore said discussions would continue between governments in the interim.

Sources close to the talks commented that in September, after further consultations, Harbinson is likely to draft a new document that would include formulas for some give-and-take on the more controversial issues.

Pérez del Castillo observed that some countries, like his own Uruguay, favour a new round of talks and have shown flexibility on the “new issues” put forth by the industrialised countries.

“But we have not seen any flexibility on their part,” he lamented.