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WTO tries to relaunch trade talks
GENEVA (AP)--World governments met Dec. 15 to try to extract a silver lining from yet another missed deadline in global negotiations on a trade treaty.
Members of the World Trade Organization were stressing an increased optimism--but no concrete progress--in trying to relaunch the talks, which have been stalled since the collapse of a ministerial meeting in Mexico in September.
"We have reached a point where the key issues are much clearer and where possible solutions are also becoming visible," said Carlos Perez del Castillo, chair of the WTO's ruling General Council.
"However, moving on to grasp those solutions will require intensive negotiations backed by political determination and willingness to make the necessary compromises."
WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi called on governments "to translate the political will and support of ministers into practical flexibilities."
The Dec. 15 meeting had originally been billed as the one that would put the trade negotiations back on track, but officials have been playing it down in recent weeks, acknowledging that there is still work to be done.
Negotiations on a new "round" of legally binding trade liberalization agreements were launched in Qatar in 2001 and are supposed to be completed by the end of next year. But the talks are now months behind schedule as governments fail to agree on key issues.
Trade liberalization treaties are seen by many as vital for the boost that they give to the global economy. However, allowing increased access to foreign imports can be a major political headache for individual governments, who fight hard to get the best deal possible for their own producers.
Perez del Castillo--Uruguay's ambassador to the WTO--said he had seen a real commitment to the talks but "little real negotiation, or movement toward accommodation among positions."
When the meeting of trade ministers from the WTO's 146 member states collapsed in Cancun, Mexico, three months ago, the talks were paralyzed. The working groups that had been negotiating on specific issues were suspended as governments tried first to work up a general enthusiasm to get back down to business.
Perez del Castillo said he thought it was now time for those groups to start meeting again, even though some of them lack political guidance.
The Cancun talks collapsed over four main issues--agriculture, market access for manufactured goods, the situation in the global cotton industry and the possibility of adding new areas of negotiation to the round on subjects such as government tendering, foreign investment and competition rules.
Many of the issues pit rich nations like the U.S. and the 15-member European Union against developing countries led by Brazil and India.
WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said that, despite the differences, the mood is better than it has been previously.
"We are not talking about any major breakthroughs, but what is clear is that progress has been made since Cancun," he said.
Date: 1/8/04
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