Associated Press | By Naomi Koppel | Saturday, August 16, 2003
GENEVA, Aug. 15 -- Officials of a group of developing nations, exhausted by long talks on how best to open up international trade, suggested today that several contentious topics be dropped from the current round of negotiations.
Representatives of 11 African countries proposed that the World Trade Organization shelve proposals to start negotiations on four new topics, including the highly contentious subject of investment rules.
"Many developing countries have scarce resources and limited capacity to meaningfully negotiate these issues," the nations said in their proposal, which was presented by Kenyan WTO Ambassador Amina Chawahir Mohamed at a meeting at the WTO headquarters.
Many poorer nations are concerned about the implications the issues could have for their economies, according to the proposal. India supported the position, but Latin American nations and some others were less supportive.
Attempts to reach agreement on issues already under negotiation have resulted in late-night meetings this week as diplomats prepare for a meeting of all 146 WTO trade ministers in Cancun, Mexico, next month. That meeting will mark an important stage in talks to create a new treaty on liberalizing international trade.
The European Union, which is pushing to start negotiations on the new subjects, said that only ministers in Cancun can make the decision to drop them, and until then diplomats must continue trying to come up with a framework for future negotiations.
"It isn't our job to decide that we don't want to negotiate," said EU Ambassador Carlo Trojan.
The four topics under discussion are known jointly as the "Singapore issues," because WTO ministers first considered starting negotiations when they met in Singapore in 1996, but they have never been able to agree.
The prospect of WTO negotiations on investment upsets not only many developing countries but also a large number of activists, who fear such an agreement could leave governments powerless to regulate huge multinational companies that could come into a country, cut wages and force local producers out of business.
Plans by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to create such an agreement were hastily dropped in 1998 after a leaked copy of the draft treaty provoked a public outcry.
Developing nations also fear that negotiations on the second area, competition rules, would put a huge burden on them. The EU and allies such as Japan want to see better cooperation in attempts to stamp out cartels and ensure that foreign and domestic companies receive the same treatment, but less than half of WTO members currently even have national competition authorities.
The other two areas, transparency in government contracting and improving cross-border transportation, are less controversial, but poor countries still fear that they would be unable to handle the change in regulations and procedures that would come with any deal.Associated Press:
