GENEVA--Tensions have emerged in talks at the World Trade Organization on how to address the implementation concerns of developing country members, as delegates from several nations accuse their developed country counterparts of showing little willingness to tackle the issue.
Speaking at a special session of the WTO's General Council July 3, Pakistan's Ambassador to the WTO Munir Akram expressed disappointment that no real dialogue or debate has taken place so far among members on resolving implementation problems.
Trade officials attending the meeting said that two fundamental differences have already emerged on the issue: whether implementation issues should be tackled separately or within the context of a new trade round; and whether the more technical issues related to implementation concerns should be addressed by the General Council or through its subsidiary committees.
Key developing countries have insisted that the technical, administrative, and financial problems they face in implementing and complying with existing WTO agreements should be addressed before members can consider launching WTO negotiations in new sectors. For many developing countries, deadlines for complying with WTO agreements on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), trade-related investment measures (TRIMs), and customs valuation practices expired Jan. 1 this year.
WTO Director-General Mike Moore noted June 22 that for "many of our member governments, the problems related to implementing WTO agreements are the most important issues facing the organization today."
Members agreed in May to hold the special sessions of the General Council to discuss implementation concerns. They also agreed that discussions would take account of the issues raised by a number of developing countries in a draft WTO's ministerial text, dated Oct. 19--prepared for the December ministerial meeting-- in particular paragraphs 21 and 22 of the text, which essentially call for a rewriting of many existing WTO agreements.
Paragraph 21 calls for the immediate addition of special and more flexible provisions for developing countries to WTO agreements on agriculture, antidumping, subsidies, SPS, technical barriers to trade, textiles, TRIMs, TRIPs, customs valuation, and others.
Paragraph 22 calls on the General Council to conduct a full and comprehensive review of the problems faced by members in implementing existing WTO agreements, with an initial focus on the agreements mentioned above.
Developed Nations' View
Developed members such as the European Union and Canada told the July 3 meeting that while they were prepared to be flexible in the discussions, some concerns that raised issues of reinterpreting or rewriting existing agreements could only be addressed within the context of a new round. The EU and the United States added that some of the more detailed demands raised by developing countries should be discussed by the technical experts in the subsidiary committees rather than at the head-of-delegation level in the General Council.
India's WTO Ambassador Srinivasan Narayanan countered that a certain political sensitivity was attached to the implementation issues raised, which required discussions at the head-of-delegation level, a view also shared by Pakistan.
Antidumping 'Harassment'
The talks that followed highlighted the degree of dissatisfaction among member countries with the current application of certain WTO agreements. Brazil, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines all complained about the abusive use of WTO antidumping rules. Indonesia described it as "an instrument of trade harassment." Chile hit out at what it described as the "over-implementation" of antidumping provisions, adding that, with the exception of Canada, it has an antidumping problem with every country in the Western Hemisphere with which it has trade relations.
By Daniel Pruzin
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