Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 35 • 23rd October 2003
WTO: BRIEF GC MEETING APPROVES 2005 MINISTERIAL IN HONG KONG
The WTO General Council (GC) met on 21 October for the first time following the collapse of trade talks at the fifth ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September. The inconspicuous meeting lasted for only one hour, and did not provide any political signals of where the talks were going. Indeed, Members have indicated that despite a plan put forth by General Council Chair Perez del Castillo at a Heads of Delegation meeting on 14 October on how to proceed with informal talks (see BRIDGES Weekly, 15 October 2003), the WTO remains quiet and talks low-key in anticipation of necessary political signals from capitals and key Members. Some observers have said they expect discussions to pick up only at the beginning of 2004. Both the EC and the US have indicated that while they are not opposed to restarting the talks, they are not going to take the lead. A group of 20 developing countries including Brazil, India and China, has indicated it wants to get the talks back on track, but has not yet come forth with any concrete proposals or positions.
At the GC meeting, Members accepted Hong Kong’s invitation to host the next WTO ministerial meeting. They did not yet set a date for the meeting. The WTO is mandated to hold a ministerial every two years, meaning a meeting should be held by the end of 2005. Speaking at the GC, Hong Kong agreed that the date of the meeting should be set once Members have a clearer picture of how negotiations are proceeding, and reminded Members it would need at least a year’s forewarning in order to make all the preparations.
Also at the meeting, Benin suggested dropping the agenda item on cotton, as it said informal discussions were already taking place on this item. GC Chair Carlos Perez del Castillo and Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi are conducting these discussions, as well as talks on three other key issues: agriculture, the Singapore issues and industrial market access. The item will likely feature again on the agenda of the next GC meeting, to be held in December.
Members further agreed that the chairs of the negotiating sessions would remain unchanged for the time being. These bodies are currently not meeting, and the question of the chairs, whose mandates officially expired at Cancun, will be taken up once negotiations start again in the bodies established under the Trade Negotiations Committee.
India opposes basing talks on Derbez text
While the APEC countries, meeting in Bangkok from 20-21 October, had agreed that the negotiating text used as a basis for discussions at Cancun could serve as the basis for discussions to be picked up in Geneva (see related story, this issue), India’s Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley rejected this idea. The text referred to was the revised 13 September Draft Ministerial Text (JOB(03)/150/Rev.2) tabled by the Chair of the Cancun Conference, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez. Jaitley was quoted as saying that "the Cancun draft can’t be the starting point of any discussion… It completely failed to gauge the mood at Cancun and was contrary to the mood prevalent there". His statement points to the difficulties in restarting the WTO Doha round talks, as there is no text agreed as a basis for negotiations.
The next GC meeting is scheduled for 15, 16 and 18 December this year. This meeting, to be held at the senior officials level, is tasked with finding the way forward to take "necessary action" for Members to be able to conclude the current round of trade negotiations.
ICTSD reporting; "India Rejects Cancun Draft As Basis For Future WTO Talks," DOW JONES, 22 October 2003.