Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 9 • Number 22 • 22nd June 2005
Geneva Negotiations Intensify As Dalian Mini-Ministerial Nears
Informal discussions among WTO Members continued over the last week, with the EU hosting talks among senior delegates from 20-21 June covering issues such as agriculture, non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and services. A meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), scheduled for 21 June, was put off and will reconvene later as progress is made in the negotiations. Informals are ongoing, with, inter alia, a range of agriculture topics being covered in smaller group. The agriculture Chair, Tim Groser, is preparing specific negotiation-related questions for delegates to respond to, providing him guidance as he sets out to prepare a first draft of the "July approximations" towards the end of the next agriculture week, scheduled for 4-8 July. The "July approximations" will serve as a limited version of the full modalities for negotiations, which Members hope to agree on at the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting in December this year. Initial drafts, or stock-taking exercises across negotiating areas, are set to be debated at a mini-ministerial meeting in Dalian, China, from 12-13 July.
EU hosts senior officials meeting
The EU senior officials meeting, which was attended by, among others, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Kenya, saw discussion on all three pillars of the agriculture negotiations (market access, domestic support and export competition). Among issues brought up at the meeting was a suggestion by the US that delegates focus on areas where it is realistic to expect progress in the lead-up to Hong Kong. The EU, on the other hand, has been stressing the need to agree on a balanced package, both among the three agricultural pillars, within the three pillars — especially within the export competition pillar, where the EU has agreed to phase out its direct export support on the condition that other countries phase out other forms of export support in parallel — and between agriculture and other areas of negotiation.
The services negotiations, an area which has been lagging behind, was also addressed at the senior officials meeting. The participants supported an approach recently proposed for the services talks, based on a set of minimum "benchmarks" that could be used to encourage less ambitious Members to raise their standards (see BRIDGES Weekly, 15 June 2005). The meeting participants will seek to have this idea included and further debated at the ministerial-level talks at Dalian.
EU budget talks stall over agriculture
Still railing from the rejection of the new EU constitution in French and Dutch referenda, EU leaders hit another hitch, failing to agree on the Union’s 2007-2013 budget during a 16-17 June summit. Central to the budget disagreement was the funding of the agriculture sector, the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The EU spends 40 percent of its budget on agricultural subsidies. The UK, fiercely opposed by France, argued that the budget as such was too large, and that too much of it was being channelled into the agriculture sector and rural development. The UK is a net payer to the EU, and has received relatively limited support for its agricultural sector, due to the sector’s small size in the UK compared with other countries, such as France. In the end, the negotiations collapsed because the UK refused to go along with freezing its budget rebate until broader budget overhaul was agreed, including for agriculture.
On his return home, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair addressed the reform of the CAP, stressing that ”it is not just important and right and relevant for the European Union that there is change in the Common Agricultural Policy, it is an essential part of getting a fairer deal for the poorest countries in the world.”
Next steps in the WTO negotiations
The Dalian mini-ministerial will provide the third opportunity for ministers to move the discussions forward, following one such meeting at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in January (see BRIDGES Weekly, 2 February 2005) and another in conjunction with the OECD annual meeting in April (see BRIDGES Weekly, 11 May 2005, ). Around 30 delegations have been invited by the Chinese, including the EU, US, Argentina, Bangladesh, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, and Zambia.
In the meantime, informal negotiations are continuing in Geneva. In addition, the Services Council Special (negotiating) Session is convening on 27 and 30 June, talks on non-agricultural market access will be held from 28 June to 1 July, and an ‘agriculture week’ is scheduled for 4-8 July. The TNC is expected to convene ahead of the Dalian mini-ministerial, taking stock of the state of play. This assessment, and possible text from different negotiating groups, will serve as relevant input at the Dalian meeting.
ICTSD reporting; "Blair Calls EU Farming Subsidies Reform," GUARDIAN UNLIMITED, 22 June 2005; "China to Host WTO Mini-Ministerial Meeting," DALIAN PRESS RELEASE, June 2005; "U.S. Suggests Focusing Agriculture Talks On ‘Doable’ List for Hong Kong Preparations," WTO REPORTER, 21 June 2005; "Key WTO Members Agree to Push Services ‘Benchmarks’ Concept at China Mini-Ministerial," WTO REPORTER, 22 June 2005.