Wall Street Journal | November 14, 2001 | By Helene Cooper and Geoff Winestock
DOHA, Qatar -- Negotiators at the World Trade Organization meeting here battled late into last night to come up with a deal to launch a new round of trade talks, with French farmers standing in the way.
With a deadline long past for the talks to end, Europe was still refusing to eliminate export subsidies to farmers, a sacred cow in France. The impasse threatened the talks, putting the trade organization in danger of repeating its last disastrous meeting in Seattle two years ago, when talks collapsed.
U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Zoellick spent last night shuttling back and forth between delegates from the European Union, which came with its full Council of Ministers, and delegates from poorer countries, including India. With almost every other issue resolved, weary trade envoys here were angrily denouncing the French for threatening to blow up the deal. "If we don't get a deal, it's because of France," one U.S. negotiator said. "There's no other way around it; they are isolated."
That wasn't entirely the case, however; other countries were sharing in the blame. In the house of cards that are the WTO negotiations, India was refusing to open its market to foreign investment, a move that would give EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy the political cover he needed to give in on agriculture.
The U.S., for its part, was refusing to import more textiles from India and Pakistan, something that could conceivably prod the Indians to move on investment, and, ergo, the Europeans to move on agriculture.
Trade envoys last night were still hopeful that they could browbeat the French into a last-minute deal, if for no other reason than to avoid a repeat of Seattle. "Could we afford to walk out of here without a deal? No," said Nacir Benjeloun-Touimi, Morocco's ambassador to the WTO.
In the last-minute haggling here, there were lighter moments as countries tried to wring out all the concessions they could get. Ecuador tried to reopen a decades-old, contentious bananas issue, which was settled back in the spring. "I thought we had driven a stake through the heart of bananas," one WTO official said.
WTO officials said it was unlikely that the talks would be extended beyond the wee hours of this morning. Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, begins tomorrow here in Qatar, and Qatari officials have said they want the trade meeting, with its massive security requirements, out of town.
To drive home their point, Qatari officials posted notices in the news-media center warning reporters they would be required to leave by noon today. The EU last night was also fighting almost alone in insisting that the WTO take up a raft of environmental issues.
The EU pressed for the right to put warning labels on genetically modified products it views as environmentally unsound. It also sought the right to ban food and other imports on health grounds, even when that isn't backed by most scientific opinion. Developing countries -- joined by the U.S. -- viewed the demands as closet protectionism.
One possible outcome is that the EU will cave in on agriculture in exchange for gains on environment. "Agriculture and the environment are the issues we will be talking about going out of the door tonight," said Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile.
Deal in Doha
Make-or-break issues at the World Trade Organization talks in Doha, Qatar
Issue: Agriculture Who Won: Developing countries, U.S., Australia Why: EU folded after trying all week to protect subsidies for French farmers
Issue: Textiles Who Won: Domestic U.S. textile manufactures Why: U.S. refused to accept more textile imports from poor countries
Issue: Antidumping Who Won: Japan, Brazil, Korea Why: U.S. folded after trying to keep its antidumping laws off the table
Issue: Environment Who Won: Nobody Why: Developing countries refused to let Europe use public fears about genetically modified food as excuse to keep out products, but agreed to preferential access to environmentally sound products
Issue: Investment Who Won: India Why: Europe folded on demands that India open to foreign investment
Issue: Drug Patents Who Won: Developing countries Why: Developing countries refused to talk about anything else until U.S., EU, and Swiss signed declaration that public health trumps patent protection
Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.Wall Street Journal:
