Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 10 • Number 39 • 22nd November 2006

Doha Round: Lamy Gives Green Light To ‘De Facto’ Resumption Of Geneva Talks

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WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy on 16 November gave Geneva-based trade diplomats the ‘green light’ to start informal discussions on all issues in the stalled Doha Round talks. He told an informal heads of delegation gathering that "fully-fledged" negotiations, in contrast, would remain impossible until Members came forward with softened bargaining positions. One negotiator said that talks at WTO headquarters had now resumed "in a de facto sense."

When the negotiations were suspended in late July due to governments’ persistent inability to agree on cuts to farm subsidies and tariffs, Lamy said that they would remain on ice until Members came forward with specific new concessions (see BRIDGES Weekly, 26 July 2006).

No such offers have been forthcoming, though some Members have hinted at them. Nevertheless, Lamy said that his discussions with government officials from all over the world had revealed "widespread and genuine" support for a return to the negotiating table.

Chairs to determine path forward

Pointing to the various informal discussions that had been taking place among Geneva-based negotiators since July, he added that there now seemed to be "widespread support for multilateralising these contacts and bringing them back to the negotiating groups."

"In practice," Lamy explained, "this means increasing the number of contacts in the various negotiating areas and broadening them in the interest of transparency and inclusiveness." He said that this would give Members more opportunities to "to test each other’s positions and to explore possible options to take the negotiations forward." He also encouraged delegations do so bilaterally.

Lamy told the informal Trade Negotiations Committee meeting that all of the negotiating group chairs would, with input from delegations, determine how work would proceed, "bearing in mind the difference circumstances" of their respective committees.

The Doha Round negotiating groups — as well as the TNC, which oversees them — stopped meeting formally when the talks were suspended. However, the chairs have been holding low-key consultations with delegations as well as with Lamy. These had already been picking up in recent weeks (see BRIDGES Weekly, 15 November 2006).

Not yet ready for ‘fully-fledged’ talks

Attempting to describe the new state of the talks, Lamy said that they were "somewhere between the quiet diplomacy of the last months and… fully-fledged negotiations." The latter, he emphasised, "will only come when Members are ready to put numbers to the flexibilities they have already expressed in general terms on key issues." At the current juncture, Lamy insisted, it would be premature to bring ministers into the process.

New numbers would be particularly necessary on agricultural market access and domestic support, he said. These, together with industrial tariffs, form the ‘triangle’ of issues that the WTO chief has long maintained are central to any Doha Round deal (see BRIDGES Weekly, 29 March 2006).

Narrow window of opportunity

Lamy once again warned Members that the ‘window of opportunity’ for the talks was limited. "There must be significant progress by the early spring if we are to have a chance of finishing the round next year," he said.

The narrowness of this window arises primarily from the US’ political timetable. The US president is set to lose his ‘trade promotion authority’ (TPA) mandate from Congress in July 2007. TPA allows him to negotiate trade deals and submit them for a yes-or-no vote by Congress without the possibility of amendment. Although it will not be possible to conclude the Doha Round by June, enough progress towards a deal by March or April may be enough to convince Congress that it would be worthwhile to extend the president’s TPA (see BRIDGES Weekly, 15 November 2006).

Members broadly supportive of resumption

Several delegations intervened to welcome the resumption of across-the-board talks. Many stressed the need for transparency. The US stressed that the recent elections there had not changed its commitment to the negotiations.

One negotiator told Bridges that Lamy’s decision reflected Members’ mood. "Lamy took a legitimate gamble [when suspending the talks]," the official said. However, it did not embarrass or intimidate anyone into new concessions. "Let’s move on."

A handful of smaller delegations reportedly expressed concern that they lacked the capacity to attend simultaneous meetings on different topics. Some negotiators believe that it is likely that the chairs will consult with each other and come up with some sort of broad schedule for when meetings might take place.

Agriculture negotiations Chair Ambassador Crawford Falconer (New Zealand), who had already been holding consultations quite actively, held another ‘fireside chat’ with around two dozen ambassadors on 21 November. Sources report that the group agreed to hold further meetings to look at market access and domestic support issues. Falconer is also expected to schedule a meeting open to all WTO Members before the end of the month

ICTSD reporting.