Inside US Trade
The head of an association of major European companies late last month rejected the European Commission's vision for a new round of World Trade Organization negotiations by arguing against the inclusion of investment, competition, and government procurement rules. Time is too short to reach consensus on such a broad list of negotiating topics by the November ministerial in Qatar, according to Morris Tabaksblat, chairman of the European Round Table.
Instead, a new round should focus on the priorities of tariff reductions, ongoing agriculture and services negotiations, trade facilitation, removal of environmental and food safety non-tariff barriers and figuring out ways in which countries can resolve their disputes by negotiation instead of WTO litigation, he said.
"This is an agenda which is neither comprehensive nor inclusive as the trade jargon goes," he told a business forum in Switzerland last month. "It does not place up-front issues such as intellectual property, investment, public procurement and competition."
He emphasized that these issues are "highly relevant" to the business community, which he said wants to see a new round this year. "But attempting to include all of them in an agenda, within the time frame as just mentioned, would, I think be a recipe for failure," Tabaksblat said on April 21.
A new round should be focused and deliver results in three years, Tabaksblat said. Failure to launch a round at Qatar will be a "lost opportunity" but should not be interpreted as a victory for anti-globalization forces, he said.
Tabaksblat also called for greater market access for developing countries' products, focusing on agriculture, textiles and the practice of tariff escalation - which places higher tariffs on processed goods thereby discouraging value-added industries in exporting countries.
The European Round Table describes itself as a "club" of 45 executives from energy, telecommunications, financial services and manufacturing firms.:
