BLOOMBERG | By TIM COLEBATCH | August 17, 2001
Trade ministers from 19 countries and trading groups have been summoned to Mexico City for a two-day crisis meeting to try to break the logjams threatening the launch of a new global trade round.
The emergency meeting, to be held on August 31 and September 1, was called after World Trade Organisation director-general Mike Moore warned there was still no consensus on any of the 20 issues proposed for the agenda of the new trade round, scheduled to be launched in Doha, Qatar, in November.
The 19 invitees include ministers from heavyweights such as the United States, the European Union and Japan, developing countries opposing a round such as Malaysia and Pakistan, formidable sceptics such as Brazil and India, agricultural exporters and importers, and three African countries.
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile are among those who have confirmed they will be there.
Mexican officials say the meeting could help bridge the gaps that once again threaten to derail hopes of new global trade negotiations.
A new global trade round was to be launched in Seattle in December 1999, but the meeting collapsed amid street riots, divisions between Europe and the US, and a rebellion by ministers from developing countries against their exclusion from key meetings.
Senior officials met in Geneva three weeks ago to try to close the gaps, but made little progress. After the meeting, Mr Moore issued a dire warning through the Financial Times, concluding: "The situation is fragile. If we return (in September) with unchanged positions, then I fear the worst for the ministerial conference in Doha, for the WTO and for the global trading system itself."
Officials say the main issues dividing countries are agriculture, the environment, anti-dumping rules and complaints over the non-implementation of agreements made in the Uruguay Round, such as removing quotas on textiles and clothing imports.
On agriculture, Australia, its Cairns Group allies and the US are demanding that the agenda for the negotiations specifically canvass the possible abolition of export subsidies, while the EU wants the wording left vaguer.
Mr Vaile will attend on his way to chair the annual meeting of the Cairns Group of farm exporting nations in the Uruguayan beach resort of Punta del Este.
With deliberate irony, the free-trade radicals will meet in exactly the same place, in the same month, as the last global trade round was launched: fully 15 years ago.BLOOMBERG:
