Inside US Trade
The November ministerial meetings of the World Trade Organization in Doha, Qatar must proceed according to plans despite potential risks in the region in the wake of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, trade leaders from the U.S., Europe and the World Trade Organization said this week.
United Sates Trade Representative Robert Zoellick described the trade agenda as a way of reinforcing American values and defying those "who want us to retreat from world leadership."
"While we will take every step to ensure security, it is important that the World Trade Organization meeting in Doha proceed so that the world trading system can continue to promote international growth, development and openness," he said in a written statement Friday (Sept. 14).
European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy also said the timetable for the Doha meeting should not be questioned.
"My response on this point is clear: we have to work to maintain the November ministerial meeting," he said in an address to European Parliament members Monday (Sept. 17). "Not because of obstinacy, not because nothing has changed: because the dialogue and the negotiation between states or regional bodies sharing the benefit of common legal rules is of vital importance."
Some trade observers, however, have said that November's WTO meetings may well have to relocate, possibly to Geneva, in light of the new security concerns.
WTO Director General Mike Moore welcomed U.S. and EU resolve on the issue in remarks to an informal general council meeting yesterday (Sept. 20), and said the attacks made the WTO agenda even more important.
"The global economy, the need to address everyone's vital interest, must drive us forward. If anything, recent events have strengthened Ministers' commitment to address reality and to make our civilized system of engagement succeed," Moore said.
Moore also took the opportunity to tell delegates that the scale of delegations in attendance should be trimmed, a concern that existed even before the recent attacks.
"[W]e do need to remind ourselves that our objective is to have just a handful of issues that need to be fixed and decided at Doha," he said. "I'm still haunted by the thought 142 ministers, multiplied by 5-minute speeches, times a dozen issues. That won't work." Moore added, "Again I must ask colleagues to revisit the number of staff necessary to make our Ministerial function," he added. "We will have to reduce numbers."
Moore said that next week the Qatari Minister will visit Geneva to continue discussing practical arrangements.
Lamy's remarks on the ministerial came as part of a broader assessment of the attacks' effects on global trade policy, in which he maintained that goals in place before Sept. 11, especially with regards to developing countries where Islam is the predominant faith, must not falter.
"I see no other response than to re-emphasize our readiness and our openness," he said. "[T]he greater the military and security pressures-- and they will be great-- the greater the risk that resentment will be strong-- and it will be-- and the more we will have to push for generous market opening of our economies to developing countries."
Lamy highlighted the nations of the Mediterranean region as a priority in this regard.
"The real objectives of the terrorists is to destabilize and to divide the governments of [the countries where the Islamic faith is predominant]," he said. "As for geographic priorities, I ask myself if the recent efforts of the EU to give even more real substance to our relations with those sharing the Mediterranean region with us should not be re-emphasized in order to face up to the risks of destabilization.":
