agriculturelaw.com | March 29, 2002
The U.S. trade representative's office, on behalf of the interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC), is seeking public comments on U.S. negotiating objectives and the work program launched at the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO)last November in Doha. These views will be considered as the Bush administration develops its positions for U.S. participation in the negotiations. Comments are due by May 1.
"The declaration launching new global trade negotiations lays the ground work for trade liberalization that can lead to greater growth, opportunity and development around the world and in the United States," said USTR Robert Zoellick. "We need to hear from all sectors and interests to ensure that we are aggressively pursuing issues of concern and making full use of the opportunities in the WTO to expand market access and strengthen the rules of the trading system."
USTR said the request for comments, to be published in the Federal Register, seeks input on the general U.S. negotiating objectives, as well as country-specific and product-specific issues. The request is being posted on the USTR website, www.ustr.gov.
The Doha declaration agreed to at the WTO's Fourth Ministerial Meeting established a negotiating agenda that is to conclude no later than Jan. 1, 2005, and sets out a number of issues to be considered further at the next ministerial meeting of the WTO in 2003. In addition to the mandated negotiations in agriculture and services, the negotiation of a multilateral system of notification and registration of wines and spirits, and the negotiation of improvements to the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), negotiations at Doha were launched on market access for non-agricultural products; WTO rules (on antidumping, subsidies, fisheries subsidies, and regional trade agreements); and on limited aspects of the relationship between WTO and multilateral environmental agreements.agriculturelaw.com:
