Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 28 • 21st August 2003
WTO In Midst Of Negotiating Flurry
WTO Members are in the midst of two busy weeks of negotiations prior to a final pre-Cancun General Council meeting to be held from 25-26 August. General Council Chair Perez del Castillo has been conducting Heads of Delegation (HOD) meetings every morning, beginning on 11 August after a two-week WTO recess. These meetings focus on all issues up for negotiation — including agriculture, non-agricultural market access, the Singapore issues and special and differential treatment (S&D) for developing countries (see related stories, this issue) — allowing Members to make their way through the items included in the draft Ministerial text for the fifth WTO Ministerial meeting in Cancun from 10-14 September. Smaller groups are meeting during the afternoons and into the night, and groups of Members have tabled a number of key proposals, most significantly in the area of agriculture. As such, real negotiations are — finally — taking place. According to sources, Chair Perez del Castillo plans on releasing a revised Draft Ministerial Declaration text on 22 August (see http://www.ictsd.org/ministerial for the latest version issued on 18 July).
Montreal "mini-ministerial" puts pressure on US, EC
During the WTO recess, 25 Members met in a "mini-ministerial" organised by the Canadian government in Montreal from 28-30 July. The main focus of the meeting was on bridging gaps over agriculture, which has been the stumbling block of the Doha Round. Ministers urged the US and EC to find a compromise to unblock negotiations on agriculture, which would provide impetus for negotiations in all other areas as well. The US and EC met informally in bilateral meetings around the mini-ministerial, which itself did not lead to any breakthrough, and continued to work together, finally tabling a proposal on 18 August (see related story, this issue).
The way forward
While trade diplomats have expressed some optimism on the possibility of reaching a broad agreement at Cancun, some are still highly concerned with the process itself. A number of African countries, including Kenya, Benin, Botswana, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, made a submission on 14 August proposing improvements to the decision-making process before and at Cancun (WT/GC/W/510, searchable at http://docsonline.wto.org). They emphasised the need for a transparent, democratic, inclusive and consultative process, and called for the adoption of procedural rules to ensure such a process.
Chair Perez del Castillo indicated that he would issue a revised draft Ministerial text on 22 August, incorporating the most recent developments in various negotiating areas. The new draft will be discussed in the resumed 25-26 August General Council meeting (the last meeting, held from 24-25 July, was formally suspended to allow for further negotiations. (See BRIDGES Weekly, 28 July 2003). The General Council is also expected to deal with the issue of modalities for the Singapore issues — investment, competition, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation — since these have not been resolved in informal and HOD meetings (see related story, this issue).
ICTSD reporting.