Inside US Trade February 23, 2001
World Trade Organization Director General Mike Moore yesterday (Feb. 22) endorsed a mid-summer target date for members to assess whether the ministerial in Qatar can be used as a springboard for a new round. At that time, countries should have an understanding of a possible negotiating agenda in order to successfully prepare the November ministerial, he told reporters following a speech to the Agriculture Outlook conference.
"In July, there has to be an honest political appraisal of how far we can go," Moore said. "July is a time when we should understand the depth and scope of an agenda so we can report to the leaders and ministers, this is where the problems are, this is how we believe we can solve them."
Moore emphasized that the July target date does not mean an agenda must be set in stone at that time. But he was clear that countries cannot wrangle over possible negotiations until late in the preparatory process. "If the governments can't agree, we need to know soon," he added.
But Moore acknowledged that the Qatar ministerial is not necessarily linked to the launch of new negotiations, but could be a more routine event. He said it would be useful to have a ministerial "that is a non-event, so that [ministers] can meet without the pressure of 'you have to have a declaration,'" he said.
According to Moore, it is important for the institution of the WTO to have clear objectives for the Qatar ministerial and a realistic expectation meeting them.
Many of the developing country demands for more benefits under existing trade agreements will have to be addressed in new negotiations, he said. "On the major implementation issues, it's hard to see capitals moving on them outside of a wider context," he said. "I don't believe implementation will solve the problems of agriculture and textiles."
He said developing countries had already "succeeded in that implementation is at the core of the agenda" for a new round.
Moore also said he believed the WTO dispute settlement rules needed to be revised, but that this could only happen in the context of a new round.
In prepared remarks before the Agriculture Outlook Forum 2001, Moore stressed that in order for negotiations in the areas of agriculture and services to be successful, they should be tied to broader multilateral negotiations. Their agenda must reflect the interests of all WTO members and the level of U.S. leadership that the U.S. has shown to the multilateral system in the past, he said.
"I believe anyone who wants to see the agriculture negotiations produce the best possible result in a reasonable timeframe has a strong interest in seeing a new WTO round launched soon," he said. "By the time WTO Ministers meet in Qatar in November, I am hopeful they will be in a position to agree on significant steps forward in the agriculture negotiation within a wider process."
Moore also emphasized that the WTO is the best forum for addressing the problems facing U.S. agriculture producers in export markets. He said that regional agreements were no substitute for the solid framework of rules and disciplines across the board that the WTO system could provide. He noted that 75 percent of total U.S. exports were to countries outside the North American Free Trade Agreement, but did not say how much of this was trade with other hemispheric partners.
The Bush Administration has singled trade liberalization in agriculture out as its top priority, but has also said it will focus much of its energies on jump-starting negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas. At the same time, U.S. Trade Representative Bob Zoellick has testified that the focus on the FTAA would not be to the exclusion of the multilateral trading system.
On China accession, Moore noted the continued difficulty over a demand by China that it be granted an exemption from disciplines on domestic support for agriculture normally accorded developing countries. "To China I would say, you are not a developing country," he said. He said agriculture was the most intractable issue to be dealt with in the context of Chinese accession.
_:
