DOHA ROUND TALKS RESUME IN GENEVA
Geneva-based trade diplomats have stepped up the pace of talks at the WTO after receiving the green light from Director-General Pascal Lamy to resume discussions on all issues in the troubled Doha Round negotiations. The chairs of most of the negotiating groups have been consulting with delegations to try to determine how best to proceed. However, no path out of the impasse in the talks has become visible, as Members have not explicitly come forward with changed bargaining positions.
Delegates had been meeting amongst each other informally since July, when work in the various negotiating groups ceased with the suspension of the talks due to persistent differences on farm trade. On 16 November, Lamy gave a speech to Members authorising what trade diplomats are calling a ’soft relaunch’ of the negotiations.
Lamy, however, left it to the negotiating group chairs to decide how to move forward, "bearing in mind the different circumstances" of their respective committees. The WTO chief also said that "fully-fledged negotiations" — especially those at the ministerial-level — would remain premature until Members came forward with concrete new proposals, particularly for expanding agricultural market access and cutting farm subsidies.
In this context, discussions on environment are not at the fore. The chair of the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) special session, Ambassador Toufiq Ali (Bangladesh) has, however, held some smaller informal meetings on the way forward.
Chairs proceeding at different paces, led by ag
Sources report that the negotiating group chairs have largely been sounding out Members to hear their views on the state of the talks. While some are still at the stage of meeting with individual delegations or small groups of them, others — most notably the chair of the crucial farm trade negotiations — have already convened gatherings of the entire WTO membership, or are planning to do so soon.
Agriculture Chair Ambassador Crawford Falconer (New Zealand) has held a series of ‘fireside chats’ with a group of around two dozen ambassadors, focusing on market access and domestic support issues. He already organised one ‘transparency forum’ on 10 November for all Members to discuss the talks (see Bridges Weekly, 15 November 2006, http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/06-11-15/story2.htm). Delegates indicate that he plans to hold three more ‘fireside chats’ before the end of the year, as well as additional meetings for the entire membership.
Alongside these consultations, delegates indicate that different groups of countries have been working to refine their negotiating positions, notably with regard to the specific flexibilities that developed and developing countries will receive to shield some products from the full force of tariff cuts.
As for the negotiations on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) — the third side of what Lamy has coined a ‘triangle’ of central issues in the Doha Round together with farm subsidies and tariffs — Chair Ambassador Don Stephenson (Canada) has also been consulting with different delegations and Member groupings. Sources suggest that he has been attempting to ascertain if countries have any new concessions to offer, as well as whether they want to resume NAMA discussions immediately from where they left off in July, or to wait for signs of initiative from the farm trade talks before starting in earnest.
Environment also discussed
Consultations on environmental goods and services have not yet expanded to include all Member delegations at once. On 24 November, Ambassador Ali convened separate meetings for the proponents of each of the two main methodologies proposed for expediting trade liberalisation for environmental goods and services. Sources suggest that differences remain largely intact between the mostly developed countries that favour the ‘list’ approach that would identify specific eligible products, and supporters of the ‘project’ approach that calls for temporarily liberalising access for goods used in approved environmental projects. Ali said that he would continue his consultations, and asked countries to be ready for further meetings.
Overall, there is only a brief ‘window of opportunity’ for delegates to complete negotiations before the US President’s ‘trade promotion authority’ (TPA) mandate expires in July (under the TPA, the US Congress can either accept or reject trade agreements, but not open them up to modification). Sources in the US indicate that given signs of progress in the Doha Round over the next months, the TPA could likely be extended to allow the president to sign the final deal by the end of the year.
"US rebuffs European plan to invigorate Doha," REUTERS, 27 November 2006; "EU proposes ministers push soon for Doha deal," REUTERS, 27 November 2006; "US Congressmen: WTO progress would influence farm bill, TPA decisions," ASSOCIATED PRESS, 29 November 2006.