Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 38 • 13th November 2003

EU Position On Singapore Issues Expected In December; NGOs Target EC Decision-Making

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The EU 133 Committee (an EU decision-making body for trade, in which members states are represented) met on 7 November to consider an EC report on negotiating strategies for the so-called Singapore issues of investment, competition, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation. According to trade sources, the meeting was "inconclusive," and a final decision on the Singapore issues would revert to EU trade ministers, due to meet informally on 2 December.

The EC remains in ‘reflection mode’, taking a passive stance in the relaunch of WTO talks, and EU member states are engaged in internal discussions (see BRIDGES Weekly, 30 October 2003). On the Singapore issues, member state opinions diverge, reportedly ranging from those of the Netherlands — which advocates that the EU should continue to insist on negotiating all issues — to the UK, which argues that Brussels should give up talks on investment and competition policy, in line with its last-minute concessions at Cancun.

No Member should ‘pay’ for systemic rule-making on Singapore issues

The EC report, dated 30 October and entitled "Singapore Issues - Options post-Cancun," sets out approaches to negotiating the Singapore issues, seeking to dispel the notion of the EU as the ‘demandeur’ for including the issues within the single undertaking, and thus an entity that should ‘pay’. According to the report, the Singapore issues are systemic rule-making issues that neither the EU nor any other Member should ‘pay’ for by concessions in other areas such as agriculture.

The report highlights three areas of objections to the Singapore issues: the reluctance of some developing countries to enter into binding international commitments that could restrict their "policy space"; the apparent absence of negotiating capacity of some countries; and the reluctance of some developed countries to tie their hands to a multilateral — rather than a bilateral or unilateral — approach to investment and competition.

‘Little,’ if any, value-added for rules outside the WTO framework

While acknowledging the possibility of negotiating multilateral or plurilateral agreements on the Singapore issues outside the WTO framework was on the table, the report highlights the WTO framework as the preferred option. The Commission’s view is that any alternative to negotiating binding rules within the WTO "…would represent little, if at all any, value added".

Alexandra Wandel, trade and sustainability programme co-ordinator at Friends of the Earth Europe, criticised this position. She stressed that governments already had agreed, at the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, to further develop a binding corporate accountability legal framework within the UN system. Therefore, in her opinion, the Singapore issues could — and should — be addressed outside the WTO.

‘Optional Participation’ and ITA Model

Concluding that it would be more sensible for WTO Members to take decisions on each Singapore issue on the basis of its merits, the report forwards two basic options. The first, ‘optional participation’, would involve all WTO Members from the start during the actual negotiations. However, Members could decide at a later point whether or not to actually sign on to the agreement. This later point would be determined at the outset and would logically be at or near the end of the negotiations. This approach would, the report adds, allow Members to participate and try to influence the result in one direction or the other. The second option, following the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) Model, would see a limited participation from the outset, with the possibility of other Members joining along the way. This option could, according to the report, increase the possibility of maintaining the preferred level of ambition and a high level of pro- development approaches.

The report sees little prospect for investment and competition policy to be negotiated within the single undertaking. On government procurement, the merit of a plurilateral agreement in ensuring transparency in procurement activities would depend on several new joining. Arguing that it would be "logical" to aim for a fully multilateral agreement in government procurement, the report concedes that this "logic is not shared by all". The report considers trade facilitation the most favourable for negotiation within a single undertaking.

Civil society critical of Commission’s report

Meanwhile, over 100 civil society organisations comprising major environmental, development, human rights and farmer’s organisations from across Europe issued a letter to the Commission and EU member states on Friday, 7 November, insisting that the Singapore issues must be dropped once and for all from the EU’s WTO agenda. The criticism of the EC report comes in the wake of a WWF report entitled, "A League of Gentlemen: Who really runs EU Trade Decision Making?," criticising the secrecy surrounding the shaping of the EU’s trade policy. According to the report, the domination of policy-making by a small but influential group of trade specialists could result in a narrowly focussed debate, ignoring broader issues such as sustainable development.

According to WWF Trade Policy Advisor Tom Crompton, "European trade policy has huge implications for people and the environment both at home and abroad. It is high time that a bright light was shone into the murky world in which these decisions are taken".

To access the EC report, see http://www.ictsd.org/ministerial/cancun/docs/EC-Sing-Issues-Post- Cancun.pdf.

To access the WWF report, see http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/policy/trade_and_investment/ne ws.cfm?uNewsID=9621.

ICTSD reporting; "Leaked Commission Document Reveals New EU Strategy after Cancun: 100 NGOs Demand Drop WTO Expansion Agenda Once and For All!", FRIENDS OF THE EARTH EUROPE, 7 Nov 2003; "EU Shifts Stance On Deadlocked Trade Talks", FINANCIAL TIMES, 6 Nov 2003; 100 NGOs Demand EU Drop Trade Expansion Agenda, ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE, 7 November 2003; " ‘EU Trade Officials: Less secrecy, more accountability’, says WWF", WWF PRESS RELEASE, 6 November 2003; "EU Members Weigh Options to Advance Singapore Issues After Failure in Cancun", WTO REPORTER, 7 November 2003; " EC ‘keeps Britain in dark’ ", THE GUARDIAN, 10 Nov 2003.

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