News and Analysis • Volume 13 • Number 2 • June 2009

3 - Regular WTO Ministerial Announced for December

The WTO General Council agreed in May to hold a much-delayed ministerial conference late in 2009. The low-key event will focus on an overall review of the organisation. The meeting also saw a number of Members rally to a call to resist protectionism and promote global trade

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Ambassador Matus said that there was broad support for holding the event in plenary sessions where all ministers would be able to participate equally. Since the launch of the Doha Round in 2001, WTO ministerial gatherings (whether ‘regular’ conferences or ‘mini-ministerials’) have focused almost exclusively on advancing the Doha Round negotiations in small groups of key players, leaving many delegations frustrated at the lack of opportunity to participate.

The December 2009 event promises to be different. According to Ambassador Matus, its ‘regular’ nature “could help us establish a new model of ministerial-level meetings conducive to good governance and overall review of the WTO, and one that is not inextricably tied to any particular ongoing negotiations.” The broader focus would also mean that ministers would not necessarily have to focus on producing a formal declaration, “although, of course, we will have to consider the most effective way of recording the substance of the ministers’ discussions and any convergence or conclusions they may reach.”

The General Council chair also said that the conference should be a much leaner and more economical affair than the extravaganzas of the recent past. Space constraints, both for meeting venues and accommodation, would require Members to trim down their delegations, which for some countries have numbered in the hundreds. Members should keep firmly in mind that the meeting is “not intended as a negotiating session, but rather a regular gathering of ministers to engage in a broader evaluation of the functioning of the multilateral trading system.”

It remains to be seen whether the low-key character foreseen for the ministerial will keep media frenzy at bay.

More Countries Join G-20 Commitments

Thirteen developed and developing countries called on WTO Members to “use their best efforts to minimise the negative aspects of necessary policy measures to overcome the current crisis, and to make every effort to resist protectionism and promote global trade.” They invited other countries to join their decision to take on the commitments related to resisting protectionism adopted by the G-20 leaders in April (see page 11), “as well as to join forces in order to develop complementary initiatives to this effect together with the WTO Members ready to do so.”

A number countries expressed support for the proposal, including, among others, Israel, Taiwan, Tanzania (on behalf of the least-developed countries), Thailand and Ukraine. Their joining the G-20 pledges reinforces the WTO’s mandate to monitor the extent of protectionist action. Among the new promises made by the leaders of the world’s biggest economies was a commitment to promptly notify any such measures to the WTO, and to ask the global trade watchdog “to monitor and report publicly on our adherence to these undertakings on a quarterly basis.”

Most G-20 members have taken measures to restrict imports one way or another since they first promised to refrain from doing so in November 2008. At least the EU and the EU have reinstated export subsidies, a move widely condemned by Members at the General Council meeting (see page 8).

Although the WTO’s March protectionism report included long lists of trade-related actions taken by Members since September 2008, it carefully refrained from assessing whether the measures were ‘protectionist in nature’, WTO-consistent, or whether they had an impact on, or were related to, the global financial crisis (see page 5). The mandate to ‘monitor and report publicly on our adherence to these undertakings’ could make it easier for the WTO secretariat to be more explicit, and thus possibly make the ‘naming and shaming’ exercise a more effective tool in curbing protectionist pressures.

Argentina proposed that the WTO should pay more attention to the trade-distorting elements of subsidies in fiscal stimulus packages and sectoral rescue plans (see sidebar on page 6).

Lamy Endorses Dual Track for Speeding Round

WTO Director-General suggested that Members could work on two parallel tracks in the Doha Round negotiations. In addition to continuing technical work in the various negotiating groups, they could also start testing possible outcomes through a scheduling exercise that would indicate the level of future market access for agricultural and industrial products. The latter approach, proposed by Canada and the US, is controversial, but the US in particular has complained that while it is easy to see what Members stand to gain from its concessions, the US cannot determine the extent of future benefits due to the uncertainty surrounding how countries will apply the flexibilities in the negotiating texts (see page 2 for more).

Mr Lamy, who will start his second term as WTO chief in September, also informed the council that he had decided to retain all four current Deputy Directors-General in their positions.