GENEVA--Developing countries that are members of the World Trade Organization have criticized a proposal from the United States, European Union, Japan and Canada aimed at improving access to their markets for the trade body's poorest members.
The criticisms, aired at an informal meeting of the WTO's governing General Council April 10, have raised concerns among trade diplomats that an agreement on a "confidence-building" package for poorer members may not be reached by their self-imposed May 3 deadline.
Representatives from the WTO's 29 least-developed countries told the General Council that the market access proposal from the so-called Quad Group granting tariff-free and quota free access to "essentially all" LDC exports fell short of what they had originally hoped for, according to officials who attended the meeting. Trade diplomats from developing countries also complained that instead of boosting LDC exports, the Quad initiative may only succeed in diverting trade away from their countries.
Both developing countries and LDCs also criticized the Quad Group for failing to endorse the establishment of a standing WTO mechanism for reviewing implementation concerns, including requests for additional time to comply WTO agreements on investment (TRIMs), intellectual property (TRIPS), customs valuation and others where implementation deadlines have passed.
Moore Unhappy With Loopholes
WTO director-general Mike Moore has been pushing for an agreement on confidence-building measures in order to address complaints from developing countries that they have been excluded from the system. These complaints grew in the run-up to the WTO's ministerial meeting in Seattle, where developing countries insisted that their implementation concerns be addressed as a condition for their participation in a new round, as well as in Seattle itself, where a number of delegations openly revolted against the closed-door "green room" meetings among key WTO members.
The proposed package approved by Quad Group officials March 31 includes four key elements: zero-tariff and zero-quota access to their markets for least-developed country (LDC) imports; an agreement to review implementation problems of developing countries, including requests to extend implementation deadlines for certain agreements on a case-by-case basis; improve the WTO's capacity-building and technical assistance efforts for developing countries; and enhance both the internal and external transparency of the organization.
But Moore reportedly rebuked the Quad Group for including loopholes in the LDC market access offer which would allow them to exclude textile and agricultural products from the proposal and for failing to take on his proposal for an additional 10 million Swiss francs ($6.06 million) in funding for technical assistance programs over the next three years.
In an update to the General Council on his efforts to forge a consensus on a confidence-building package, Moore refrained from criticizing the Quad Group initiative. But he warned that agreement on all elements of an agreement may not be "at the same state of evolution" by the time members meet for their next regular General Council meeting on May 3.
"Personally, I hope we will have solid results to show in all areas by then," Moore said. "We are making useful progress in a number of areas, but there is more that we can realistically hope to achieve in others."
No 'Inquisition Process.'
The harshest criticisms of the Quad initiative came from Pakistan, which the country's WTO ambassador Munir Akram described as "regression" from the offer put on the table in Seattle. Akram said the market access offer for LDCs offered no major concessions and "added insult to injury" by calling on developing countries to offer similar access to LDC goods which at the same time diverting trade away from their markets.
Akram also said that Pakistan was interested in requesting deadlines for certain WTO agreements but did not want to "go through the inquisition process" proposed by the Quad group in their case-by case approach to implementation.
Brazil's ambassador Celso Amorim criticized the Quad Group for failing to include details in its proposal regarding the specific products to be covered by the LDC market access initiative. Also absent were details regarding the potential impact of the initiative on LDC trade as well as its potential for diversifying trade away from developing countries, many of which were not much wealthier than their LDC counterparts. Amorim also criticized the Quad proposal on implementation as "insufficient," noting that the proposal failed to spell out how members should address the issue of expired deadlines for TRIPS compliance.
Paraguay also criticized the lack of detail in the Quad proposal and echoed concerns that the LDC market access initiative would disrupt developing country trade, while Colombia said it favored general extensions for implementation deadlines rather than the case-by-case review proposed by the Quad. India said it was disappointed that developing country demands for a standing mechanism on implementation were ignored and said some of the Quad "initiatives" merely reiterated clauses in existing WTO agreements.
Proposal Not Legally Binding
Bangladesh, one of the 48 countries classified by the United Nations as least-developed, said that the Quad fell short of its expectations not only by failing to provide tariff-free and duty-free access for all LDC exports but also for failing to put its offer in the form of a legally binding proposal. Haiti, another LDC, said the Quad proposal was lacking in detail and that its offer on technical cooperation could be improved considerably.
U.S. ambassador Rita Hayes told the General Council that the Quad proposal only represented a series of ideas without any conditions attached and that the group was not expecting the membership to endorse the proposal at the current meeting. Hayes said the United States continued to believe extended implementation deadlines should be approached on a case-by-case basis and that progress was already being made on this with regards to the TRIMs agreement.
She added however that the United States was hoping to do more in regards to capacity-building and technical assistance and said the Clinton administration would be asking Congress to contribute $1 million to the WTO's technical cooperation fund as well as putting forward $150 million for general capacity-building efforts in developing countries.
By Daniel Pruzin
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