Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 7 • 27th February 2003
Developing Countries Air Concerns At WTO Market Access Group
At a 20-21 February meeting of the WTO Negotiating Group on Market Access, Chair Pierre-Louis Girard (Switzerland) sought input for an overview paper on negotiating modalities for the market access talks (i.e. the way to structure the negotiations). He had produced an advance copy on 5 February (TN/MA/6, available at http://docsonline.wto.org) that presented all the formulas submitted thus far in the Group, based on previously circulated written submissions by participants. 14 March has been set as the deadline for all new submissions on modalities for negotiations on tariff and non- tariff barriers, after which the Chair will present a second overview at the end of March. Based on last week’s meeting and on the Chair’s overview paper, Members remain far from agreement on which modalities to use to move forward on market access for industrial goods.
Delegates at the 20-21 February meeting — which saw a number of interventions from developing countries — focused on discussing 12 new submissions from a broad range of Members, including developing countries such as Bangladesh - TN/MA/W/22 (on behalf of the least- developed countries), Kenya - TN/MA/W/27 (on behalf of a number of African countries), and Mauritius - TN/MA/W/21. In their submissions, these countries emphasise such factors as the extension of preferential market access arrangements, less than full reciprocity in reduction commitments from developing and least-developed countries, and the need for caution in liberalisation commitments by developing and least- developed countries due to the potential for de-industrialisation.
Bangladesh, for instance, pointed out the serious adverse impact which the liberalisation measures taken by the country during the last two and a half decades is having on its industrial development, trade and economy.
For its part, Kenya called, inter alia, for the Negotiating Group to take into account the "dismal" experience of liberalisation in African countries, and that any further liberalisation should be left to be determined by the countries themselves. Kenya also requested that maximum attention be given to reducing tariff escalation and tariff peaks on products of export interest to developing countries, and that special and differential treatment (S&D) be based on economic benchmarks, including the protection of infant industries. On environmental goods, the group of African countries said that it would be "futile" to introduce issues such as process and production methods into the debate.
Mauritius, which often defends the interests of small island developing states (SIDS), said that the modalities to be used in the negotiations should be flexible enough so as to accommodate the specific situations of countries and to stagger the liberalisation process for products that are highly sensitive. An across the board formula approach, its proposal stated, would neither take account of the different regimes under which countries trade, nor would it ensure the maintenance of at least the current preferential market access of some of the poorest and most vulnerable countries. It proposed a trade weighted average tariff reduction with a longer staging period of tariff reductions for sensitive products. Mauritius further proposed that tariff cuts should be on ‘bound’ rates, as opposed to ‘applied’ rates, which are usually much lower.
Environmental goods
While there was little discussion around environmental goods at the meeting (definitional issues in this area are being addressed for the most part at special sessions of the Committee on Trade and Environment, (see BRIDGES Weekly, 19 February 2003), a submission by Japan on sustainable development and trade in forestry and fisheries products (TN/MA/W/15/Add.1) elicited a number of negative reactions from other Members. The Japanese paper put forward the case for substantial flexibility in setting tariff and non-tariff measures to restrict imports of forestry and fisheries products — of which it is a major importer — in order to advance sustainable development objectives. Chile said that Japanese subsidies in these areas were already contributing to overexploitation of natural resources, while Malaysia objected to what it saw as an attempt by Japan to bring the concept of multifunctionality into the non-agricultural market access negotiations. Some countries in the negotiations on fisheries subsidies in the Negotiating Group on Rules have also focused on the need for Japan to reduce subsidies to its fisheries sector as a means to reduce pressure on global fisheries resources (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 21 February 2003).
The next meeting of the Negotiating Group on Non-agricultural Market Access is scheduled for 14-16 April.
ICTSD reporting.