By Daniel Pruzin The Bureau of National Affairs
GENEVA--Trade diplomats voiced mixed reactions Sept. 27 to the first draft Doha ministerial declaration and implementation texts. While several diplomats praised World Trade Organization General Council Chairman Stuart Harbinson's stand on controversial issues such as bringing antidumping rules on the agenda of a new trade round and limiting the scope of WTO talks on the environment, others said the noncommittal language for agriculture, investment, and competition policy make it likely that bruising negotiations in these areas will continue in the run-up to the Doha ministerial conference in November.
Several developing country delegations were particularly critical of the draft decision on implementation, arguing that the text offers less to the WTO's poorer members than that proposed in a "deliverables" paper put forward by Harbinson and WTO Director-General Mike Moore last July or a compromise paper on implementation put forward by the so-called "magnificent seven" group of countries (Argentina, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Thailand, and Uruguay) in June.
The ministerial declaration, which was drafted by Harbinson in cooperation with Moore, notably avoids the use of the phrase "trade round." Instead, the declaration calls for a future WTO work program covering the issues of agriculture, services, market access for nonagricultural products (i.e. industrial tariffs), trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (in particular protection of geographical indications), trade and investment, trade and competition policy, transparency in government procurement, trade facilitation (customs procedures and other formalities which act as barriers to trade), WTO rules (antidumping and countervailing measures as well as disciplines applying to regional trade agreements), amendment of WTO dispute settlement rules, trade and environment, electronic commerce, and other development-related issues.
Call for Talks
Harbinson noted that the draft ministerial represents what he and Moore "judge to be the best possible basis at the present time for reaching an eventual consensus on balanced text to be put before ministers in Doha." Most notable in the text was the call for talks to clarify existing WTO rules on the use of antidumping and countervailing measures--despite strong resistance within the U.S. Congress against any negotiations which could weaken the U.S. trade defense arsenal--and the absence of any language which would bring labor issues on the WTO agenda.
The text also dismisses the European Union's call for a broad mandate to negotiate on trade-related environmental issues, in particular a WTO agreement on the use of the "precautionary principle" allowing governments to impose trade-restrictive measures to protect public health or the environment even in the absence of firm scientific evidence of danger.
EU officials in Geneva declined to comment on the draft declaration, noting that the text would be discussed at a Sept. 28 meeting in Brussels of the "133 committee," which brings together representatives from the EU's 15 member states. But one official said the language on the environment was "obviously not adequate" for the EU given the importance of green issues in European domestic politics.
The official also said EU member states would be disappointed with the noncommittal stand taken on investment and competition policy, two issues which the EU has fought hard to include in a future negotiating agenda. The draft text calls for either initiating negotiations on the two issues or continuing with analytical work in the WTO's existing working groups on investment and competition policy.
Agriculture Could Be Biggest Problem Area
Agriculture is perhaps the biggest problem area in the draft ministerial declaration. The text merely notes that further elaboration is required based on several fundamental principles, including the long-term objective of reform in agriculture, the direction or aims of reform in the areas of market access, domestic support, and export competition, and reference to nontrade concerns. The EU, Japan, South Korea and others argue that the negotiations should be based on the mandate set out under Article 20 of the Agriculture agreement, which calls on WTO members to continue negotiations on farm reform in line with the goal of substantial progressive reduction in support and protection. The 18-member Cairns Group of agricultural exporting nations wants a more ambitious text calling for specific goals such as the elimination of farm export subsidies.
A senior trade official from a Cairns Group member country told BNA that while the elements of the negotiations spelled out in the draft text are OK, "there is clearly an enormous hole in the draft, and until it is filled with sufficiently ambitious language, the text is unbalanced."
The separate text on implementation is emerging as another major area of concern.
Developing country members have insisted that steps should be taken to address the technical, administrative, and financial problems they face in implementing and complying with WTO agreements concluded during the Uruguay Round before they agree to begin negotiations on new issues within the context of a "Doha" round. But developed countries have balked at demands that some of the agreements should be rewritten to give developing countries more lenient terms in complying with their WTO commitments.
The so-called "Quad Group" (the United States, the EU, Japan and Canada) recently offered new concessions designed to break the deadlock and get an agreement in principle by the time WTO members meet for a special Oct. 3 General Council meeting on the issue. But several developing country officials said the concessions reflected in the text were far from adequate.
"It's profoundly disappointing" declared one Asian trade diplomat who declined to be named, adding that the "deliverables" package spelled out in Annex I of the text (concessions which will be granted prior to the start of negotiations) "doesn't deliver anything at all." The official also noted that proposed concessions in last June's "magnificent seven" paper on implementation problems related to WTO agreements on technical barriers to trade and sanitary/phytosanitary appear to have been scaled back in the draft decision.
Gathering of 'Like-Minded'
Although some positive elements do exist in the text such as proposed post-Doha actions on textiles and clothing, "I don't see how this text can be accepted" at the Oct. 3 General Council meeting, the Asian diplomat said. "It looks like this issue will go down to the wire in Doha." Senior trade officials from WTO member countries will be meeting in Geneva the week of Oct. 1-5 to discuss the draft ministerial texts and try to iron out their differences on the launch of a round. Japan will be hosting an informal "advocates of the round" meeting on Oct. 2, while the so-called "Like Minded Group" of developing countries--including those countries most skeptical about launching a round--will hold their own discussions that week. The General Council will also meet for an informal half-day session before the formal meeting on implementation on Oct. 3.:
