Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 39 • 19th November 2003
WTO: Green Room Highlights Limited Progress In Trade Talks
Carlos Perez del Castillo, Chair of the WTO General Council (GC), held a ‘green room’ meeting among heads of delegation on 18 November to take stock of talks seeking to revive the current round of trade negotiations. According to Chair Perez del Castillo, Members had been showing their commitment to the process, and he said that he was "convinced we have been able to put the shock of Cancun behind us, and… pleased that our recovery from this seems to be taking place rapidly". However, he also warned that sticking points remained, in particular in the area of the Singapore issues of investment, competition, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation, where countries had not moved from their pre-Cancun positions. The meeting, which lasted for less than two hours, was held primarily for reasons of transparency, and only a small number of countries took the floor.
Chair Perez del Castillo has been consulting informally among Members on four key issues — agriculture, industrial market access, cotton and the Singapore issues — since ministers failed to reach agreement at the fifth WTO Ministerial in Cancun in September (see BRIDGES Weekly, 13 November 2003).
At the ‘green room’ meeting, Perez del Castillo elaborated on the state- of-play in the four key areas, noting that talks had basically served to test countries’ flexibility on the issues. On agriculture, he said much work remained to be done, and noted that Members agreed to work on a general framework for "modalities" (modalities refe to the specific numeric parameters for the negotiations, including timeframes) at the current stage of talks. On industrial tariffs, he noted that Members could use the text from Cancun as a basis, although there was no agreement on the text as it stood. On Singapore issues, he said each issue should be considered on its own merits, and that Members were discussing different unbundled options to address them. On the initiative to eliminate cotton subsidies, put forth by four West African countries some months before Cancun, Chair Perez del Castillo said a majority of Members felt that the issue should be integrated into agricultural talks, but given special attention. He also noted a distinction between trade and development-related aspects of the cotton issue. Overall, he said he had found that a fairly high level of convergence had emerged around the 13 September "Derbez text" that had been issued at Cancun.
WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi delivered a speech outlining his consultations with Members in both capitals and Geneva. He noted, among other things, the outcome of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co- operation (APEC) Summit and its call for re-engaging in negotiations based on the "Derbez text" as the basis for further work. He also said he had just returned from an African ministerial meeting in Cairo, which had expressed its support for efforts to ensure that negotiations regain momentum. On his plans for the near future, Supachai said he would be travelling to Central and South America, meeting with groups of ministers from the region in Honduras and Guyana. In conclusion, he stressed the need to translate a political willingness Members had been indicating into concrete progress in negotiations. He warned Members against retreating into "previous tactical positions," and called on Members to move forward.
After the Chairs had spoken, Benin took the floor to stress that the four countries backing the cotton initiative strongly felt it should be kept on a separate track and not dealt with by the Committee on Agriculture. India voiced doubt on the use of the Derbez text as a basis for negotiations.
15 December only a stepping-stone?
While Members were mandated by the Cancun meeting to find a way forward by 15 December and to take "necessary action" to be able to conclude the round, some doubt the 15 December deadline will be met in a substantive way. The EU, which is still officially in a mode of reflection (see BRIDGES Weekly, 13 November 2003), and will meet at the trade ministers level on 2 December, has, in particular, suggested decisions would be pushed forward. Carl Trojan, EC ambassador to the WTO, recently said "if we come to the conclusion that we aren’t ready on Dec. 15, we won’t convene a meeting of senior officials," and added that "it has been often suggested in the consultations that our meeting in December should not be seen as a deadline, but rather as a stepping stone to more substantive and wide-ranging work after that". He indicated that discussions may actually proceed to the next level only in mid-February.
Between the 18 November ‘green room’ meeting and the 15 December meeting of the GC, Chair Perez del Castillo will hold another, intensified round of talks on the way forward, focussing on the four key issues identified. He is expected to hold another informal stock- taking meeting on 5 December.
ICTSD reporting; "WTO trade talks make some progress but more needed," REUTERS, 18 November 2003; "WTO Negotiators Say They May Miss Another Deadline," AP, 18 November 2003; "WTO Chair Cites Progress in Post- Cancun Talks; Singapore Issues Creating Impasse," WTO REPORTER, 19 November 2003.
.