Inside US Trade | November 9, 2001
U.S. farm groups have been assured by U.S. negotiators that they will steadfastly resist any attempts by the European Union to shape future World Trade Organization talks in a way that would allow a re-opening of the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures or allow the EU to table negotiating proposals on the environment, industry sources said.
But those assurances were of a general nature, and did not directly address the possibility of trade-offs involving different countries' negotiating priorities as ministers of the World Trade Organization attempt to launch negotiations in Doha this week, they said. They were offered in a Nov. 2 meeting by the U.S. Trade Representative's Special Agriculture Negotiator Allen Johnson, who did not say that any trade off involving trade remedy law or the rules section was on the table.
In particular, agriculture groups are worried that the U.S. may agree to a general negotiating mandate on SPS rules that would open a "backdoor" for the EU to raise the precautionary principle. This refers to EU member states' desire to have the ability to restrict farm imports for the purpose of public health and food security, even when there is no majority scientific opinion pointing to a threat.
The fear is that U.S. negotiators, under pressure from Congress to stave off agreement to re-negotiate WTO disciplines on antidumping and countervailing measures, would accept a general rules mandate that does not mention any specific WTO agreements. Such a general mandate could also provide room for the EU to table proposals for the SPS agreement, for instance on precaution.
Sources said this creates a potential trade-off where the U.S. would look the other way when the EU presents proposals on SPS in exchange for tacit support from the EU as the U.S. tries to dodge a clear negotiating mandate on trade remedy rules.
"Achievement of [EU negotiating goals on environment] would have major long-term implications for U.S. agricultural exports, not just to the EU but to the world. We implore you not to give the EU that opportunity," U.S. farm groups wrote in a Nov. 6 letter to Bush Administration officials.
The letter, addressed to USTR Robert Zoellick, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, is signed by a wide spectrum of 64 groups encompassing commodity producers and processors of agricultural goods.
EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, speaking to reporters in a Nov. 5 teleconference, did not comment on that specific scenario but affirmed that the EU would be seeking an opening to table proposals on the environment wherever it could find one.Inside US Trade:
